Planning glossary

To fully understand how the plan making system works in England, it is important that a range of terms are understood. This page explains many of these terms.

Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004
This is the piece of legislation passed by the Government which has brought about the current planning system in England. The act took effect in September 2004.

Local Development Scheme (LDS)
This is a document prepared by all councils. It sets out what documents the council is going to prepare as part of its Local Development Framework (see below) and when they propose to do it. Shropshire Council’s Local Development Scheme was agreed by Government Office for the West Midlands in March 2009.

Local Development Framework (LDF)
The simplest way to think of an LDF is as a filing cabinet. The LDF is filled with files or documents called Local Development Documents, which review the important issues for the area, and include a set of polices to guide future development.

Local Development Documents (LDDs)
This is the collective term used to describe the various planning documents produced by Shropshire Council. These are Development Plan Documents, Supplementary Planning Documents and the Statement of Community Involvement. When put together these documents make up the council’s Local Development Framework.

Development Plan Documents (DPDs)
From now on the statutory planning documents prepared by the council are to be called Development Plan Documents. These will replace the old style of document, such as Local Plans. They will include policies which the planning applications received by the council can be assessed against, and they can indicate where potential sites for future development are to be located.

The Proposals Map DPD
This is the base map which will show the sites proposed for development in Development Plan Documents.

Supplementary Planning Documents (SPDs)
These replace the old system of Supplementary Planning Guidance, but act in a similar way. SPDs give further information to the policies contained in the Development Plan Documents, and can cover a wide variety of issues.

Regional Spatial Strategy (RSS)
This document is prepared by the Regional Planning Body, in Shropshire’s case this is the West Midlands Regional Assembly. This document replaces the old system of Regional Planning Guidance, and includes planning polices for the whole region on a range of issues such as housing and the environment. The policies in all Development Plan Documents made by all councils in the region must be in line with the policies in the Regional Spatial Strategy.

Development Plan
The Development Plan for the area is made up from the following documents:

• Regional Spatial Strategy
• Development Plan Documents

The development plan is used to assess planning applications received by councils.

Sustainability Appraisal (SA)
All Local Development Documents need to include a separate document called a Sustainability Appraisal. The Sustainability Appraisal tests the policies contained in the development documents against how well they perform against a range of environmental, economic and social issues. All sustainability appraisals need to include the requirements of a European Directive called Strategic Environmental Assessment.

Habitat Regulation Assessment (Appropriate Assessment)
The purpose of an Habitat Regulation Assessment (HRA) is to assess the impacts a Local Development Document will have on a range of European designated sites. As of October 2006 all councils must decide if they need to carry out a HRA on the Local Development Documents they produce.

Adopted Plan
Under both the old and new planning systems planning documents can either be adopted or in development. Under the new system if a plan has been adopted it means it has been approved in its final form by the council, and will go on to form part of the council’s local development framework. If a planning document is in development this means the final version has not yet been approved by the council.

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