Core Strategy Preferred Options

The consultation on the Preferred Options (PDF 2.6Mb) document was undertaken in accordance with the Council’s Statement of Community Involvement as adopted by Cabinet at the meeting on 18 February 2008 following examination by a government Planning Inspector. The consultation ran from 5 November 2008 to 5 January 2009.

Planning Officers engaged with the public and key stakeholders through a broad programme of events and sought to capture the views of as broad a cross section of the population in the borough as possible:

• Library drop in sessions
• Press briefings
• Parish presentations in Bury St Edmunds and Haverhill
• Leaflet drops at supermarkets
• Presentation to the Western Suffolk Local Strategic Partnership Community Strategy Steering Group (CSSG)
• Focus groups
• Community presentations in Bury St Edmunds and Haverhill
• Website: An interactive document was available to view on the council’s public consultation pages. An interactive questionnaire was also available so that comments could be submitted electronically. A total of 138 consultees used the new system for inputting responses which is a 667% increase on the number inputting during the earlier consultation that took place in March/April 2008, and it is anticipated that this will continue to increase over time. Officers have input the remaining responses into the system for ease of use at the next stage in the process. All of the responses are publically viewable on the council’s public consultation portal.

In total 3,064 representations were received from 411 people and organisations in response to the Core Strategy Preferred Options consultation in the form of letters, e-mails and questionnaires, with 38 representations submitted in relation to the accompanying Sustainability Appraisal.

Bury St Edmunds Strategic Sites

Six options for strategic sites were put forward for Bury St Edmunds. The diagrams attached at Annex C illustrate the sites in both Bury St Edmunds and Haverhill. Scoring is calculated by apportioning a score of 1 to a first and second rank, 0 to a third and forth rank and -1 to a fifth and sixth rank.

Consultation Question: If selected, should Site 4a be included with Site 4?

• 46 support
• 32 object

Three options for strategic sites were put forward for Haverhill. Scoring is calculated by apportioning a score of 1 to a first rank, 0 to a second rank and -1 to a third rank.

Officers have analysed the results of the Core Strategy Preferred Options and Strategic Options and Sustainability Appraisal consultations which were reported to the Sustainable Development Panel on 10 February 2009. All of the responses have also been analysed and can be viewed below. These will help us to finalise our planning strategy before we do a final round of consultation in spring 2009.

• General comments, St Edmundsbury vision and strategic objectives (PDF 1.81Mb)
• Settlement hierarchy - question 3, vision for Bury St Edmunds, Bury St Edmunds strategic site comments and Bury St Edmunds strategic site rankings (PDF 2.12Mb).
• Bury St Edmunds individual site comments, Bury St Edmunds hospital and Bury St Edmunds secondary school (PDF 1.83Mb)
• Vision for Haverhill, Haverhill strategic site comments, Haverhill strategic site rankings and Haverhill individual site comments (PDF 1.46Mb)
• Settlement hierarchy - question 10 and key service centres (PDF 1.62Mb).
• Service centres, infill villages, countryside, settlement boundary removal, protesting settlement identity and plan monitor manage (PDF 2.33Mb).
• Development control policies, appendix and sustainability appraisal (PDF 2.89Mb)