Spatial Vision (Chapter 5, Page 23)

Summary
1. Our concern in respect of the Spatial Vision is that there is a lack of clarity as to
the Council's objective for new housing, which will render the Vision/Core Strategy ineffective.

Representations
2. The Vision makes no explicit recognition of the substantive need to deliver new
housing to meet local needs. The 5th paragraph refers to "Development and
change has contributed significantly to meeting local needs", but it is unclear as to
what "local needs" this particular paragraph is referring to, and there is no mention of meeting the need for housing (for all sections of the community) anywhere else in the Vision.

3. If paragraph 5 is intended to refer to or encompass meeting housing needs, then it is in any event extremely unclear as to what the Vision actually entails. The first part of the paragraph refers to "meeting local needs and aspirations", but the two are not necessarily the same thing, and in many cases the aspirations of some sections of the community can be very different to the needs of other sections of the community.

4. This paragraph goes on to state that meeting "local needs" will take account of
both "the district's circumstances, as well as to regional and sub-regional
imperatives". Again, on the face of it, this sentence is potentially contradictory in
nature, but essentially the problem is that the Vision is offering no clarity as to
what the Core Strategy is trying to achieve in terms of addressing 'local needs',
and therefore the result will be that the Core Strategy will be ineffectual and
undeliverable, because it has no clear Vision.

Proposed Amendments
5. The Spatial Vision needs to be revised to provide a clearer framework to enable the delivery of new housing to meet all sectors of the community.