A timetable to track how the LDF Core Strategy is progressing is available here…

From the Planning Policy Team at Lewes District Council: Lewes District Council, on 20th February, adopted a Local Development Scheme.  The Local Development Scheme is required by the Government to set out the timetable for preparing planning documents.  The timetable for preparing the ‘Core Strategy’, which is already underway, is presented in the document.  In addition, the Local Development Scheme details the timetable for the ‘Site Allocations and Development Management Policies’ document.  The Local Development Scheme can be found here…

March 2012


In May 2010, Lewes District Council opened up its Local Development Framework (LDF) for consultation.  A second consultation phase has been on-going since October 2011. The deadline has recently been extended to 2 December 2011.

Given that LDFs now replace Local Plans as the key future planning vehicle for local councils and involve preparing a ‘Vision’ for the 25-30 year period ahead and then presenting the planning framework to achieve that vision, it will hopefully be very clear to all those involved in the Transition Movement that these are pretty significant documents. The public consultation phases of the LDF process provide your chance to enter into the current mechanism offered by our democratic process to influence the outline of the framework for planning decisions over the next 20 years (up to 2030).

What is the LDF?:  The Local Development Framework  ‘does what it says on the tin’ – it sets out (frames) the issues that will be taken into account in, and the perceived priorities for, spatial planning decisions to be taken by the local authorities area over the period up to 2030.  It consists of a new portfolio of documents (Local Development Documents) that can be tailored to suit the different needs of a particular area and can be easily updated. Central to the LDF is the Core Strategy which sets out a vision for Lewes District and identifies the areas in the District where new development or change is to take place up to 2030. [The Local Development Framework replaces the previous system of county level Structure Plans and district level Local Plans, and Unitary Development Plans for Unitary authorities].

Why is the LDF important?: Because ‘it does what it says on the tin’, setting up the frame in which decisions on planning for the district will be taken for the next 20 years. The framework WILL influence what is taken into consideration and what are seen as the priorities in the planning process for that period. If you feel that documents that have been produced by LDC miss out issues of importance to the future of our District, or you don’t like what is being framed as important or as priorities by the District Council and the South Downs National Park Authority (or alternatively, you do like it and want to support it), this is the opportunity to have your say.

The full text of our July submission to the public consultation phase on-going at that time can be viewed here…

Transition Town Lewes (TTL) and the Lewes District Local Development Framework (LDF)
Here we provide some sections of the submission that the TTL LDF group put together back in July last year. Read Extracts from the Introduction; Our Approach; Executive Summary; & Executive Summary of Our Vision.

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