Over the past 18 months, we have made great strides in improving our practices and processes in support of creating environments that will make being active easy and attractive for our residents.
Following the adoption of our local plan, which sets out a strong policy framework to create active and healthy environments, we have been creating and implementing further documents, processes, and ways of working to enable these policies to be implemented into practice.
We’ve created and published our Placemaking design guide supplementary planning document which sets out very specific guidance and criteria for how we expect developers to design and deliver new housing developments in Calderdale. This design guide has the Sport England Active Design principles embedded within it, ensuring we are maximising opportunities for creating active environments.
To further ensure we are able to uphold the standards we have set within policy and our Placemaking Design guide, we have introduced urban design capacity and capability into our local planning service. The role of the urban designer is to build the confidence and capability of planning case officers so they are able to support and influence developers to uphold the standards we have set within our Placemaking SPD.
“The combination of developing and implementing Placemaking Design guide and increasing our urban design capacity and capability in the service have created the conditions to enable us to set and uphold high design standards within the planning and development process. Design standards that will ensure we are creating environments that make being physically active easy and exciting for our residents. We look forward to sharing and showcasing the impact of this approach over the coming months and years.”
Planning Policy Manager - CMBC Planning Service
See details of our Placemaking Design guide here.