The Local Plan for North Area
The Town and Country Planning Act
The 1990 Town & Country Planning Act defines development as ‘the carrying out of building, engineering, mining or other operations in, on, over or under land, or the making of any material change in the use of any buildings or other land.’
Until recently, the Development Plan consisted of the Bedfordshire County Structure Plan, prepared by the County Council jointly with Luton Borough Council; and the Local Plan, prepared by Mid Beds which sets out more detailed policies to guide development in the area. In compliance with the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2003 and subsequent regulations which came into force on 28th September 2004, strategic guidance, in the form of Regional Planning Guidance Note 9, is now part of the development plan.
Most of the policies in the Local Plan have now been superseded by the Core Strategy and Development Management Policies Development Plan Document.
Planning permission for most development is required from the Council as local planning authority. Decisions on planning applications are required to accord with the Development Plan unless material considerations indicate otherwise, thus, the Development Plan provides the main component in a plan-led planning system.
The Mid Bedfordshire Local Plan
The First Review Deposit Draft, was published in November 1997. The Council formally adopted the Local Plan on 5th December 2005.
Saved Policies
The 
Schedule of Saved Local Plan policies (application/pdf; 16kB) is available following the issue of the Secretary of State’s direction in September. This means that only the policies listed, will be used to determine planning applications after 31st December 2008. Most of these policies have now been superseded by the Core Strategy and Development Management DPD policies.
Why do Policies Need to be ‘Saved’?
The DCLG Protocol issued in August 2006 states that if an authority wishes to retain plan policies beyond the expiry of the three year period (28 September 2007 for plans adopted before commencement of Section 38 of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 on 28 September 2004; or three years from the date of adoption for other plans) then it will need to seek the Secretary of State’s agreement to issue a direction to save them. In the case of the Mid Bedfordshire Local Plan, adopted in December 2005, this process had to be completed before December of this year to comply with this legislation.
The Protocol states that authorities will need to demonstrate that the policies they wish to be saved reflect the principles of LDFs; are consistent with current national policy; and that it is not feasible or desirable to replace them.
Thus policies have not been ‘saved’ for three main reasons:
- They repeat national planning policies e.g. GBT1- Green Belts
- The policy is not required to deliver the intended outcome e.g. PHS4- S106 Agreements for Pollution Control
- The project or development they support/enable is complete e.g. HO8(15)- Housing at The Dairy, Henlow.