The Local Development Framework

As previously explained, whilst Mayor, Ken Livingston requested that Councils under his control redo their UDP naming it the Local Development Framework (LDF). The LDF mandated central targets, based on centralised policies, such as required volumes of housing, quotas for affordable housing etc. Every local Borough had to present a new plan, a new LDF, a crucial document that would shape our environment and our lives for years to come.

It was therefore surprising that on 4th March the Council chose to rush through the current draft LDF, before the election of the current Mayor of London. Richmond Borough is now tied to the unpopular planning policies of Ken Livingston. The draft LDF, although it had some good features such as an emphasis on energy saving, contained some worrying features, notably:

  1. It does nothing to fight the garden grabbing, infill and backfill;
  2. It targets village communities, such as Teddington, for more “high density” building;
  3. It opens the way to high rise buildings in central Richmond and Twickenham;
  4. It tightens the controls on parking, thus strangling the life out of our local high streets;
  5. It promotes more development where car ownership is banned, worsening conditions on local roads and so threatening  the imposition of more CPZs and the hated CPZ tax on family cars

To combat these failings, the Richmond Declaration (LDF Appendix) was submitted to the Council on 1st May 2008 (the deadline for final comments on the LDF). On 25th November 2008 a meeting will be held with the Council, the Mayor of London’s Planning Inspector and other interested parties to discuss the final draft. The adoption of the full LDF is scheduled for May 2009.
 

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The-Richmond-Declaration

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