B&NES Council are consulting on their update to the Local Plan in light of the climate and ecological emergency. Consultation responses need to be in by 8th October.

BWCE strongly welcomes and supports the strengthened policies around renewable energy with a new policy on wind energy, the strengthened policies on sustainable construction and the new policies on embodied carbon and electric vehicles. We also make a number of recommendations for enhancing these policies further. See below for a draft of our response to the B&NES consultation.

We need to have as much support as possible for these policies to maximise the chances that these policies are adopted by the Council, so please do respond to the consultation if you feel able to do so.

Pages 59-79 on the Local Plan Update document cover the policies referred to in BWCE’s response. To see the document that outlines the wind and solar areas of search referenced in the Local Plan click on ‘Landscape Sensitivity Assessment’ below.

The easiest way to respond is via their online link. Don’t worry about the legal jargon, most comments will speak to whether you feel the Local Plan is ’sound’. You need to complete Part A with your details once, and then Part B for every policy you wish to comment on. So in each Part B you complete, you can say in box 3 whether you support the policy or not and then in box 4 you can say what modifications or improvements you would like to see.

You can also say whether you wish to take part in the public hearings to be held during the Public Inquiry run by a Planning Inspector, as part of the process of adopting the Plan. You can also upload supporting documents if you feel that will help support any points that you wish to make.

BWCE will be adapting our final response to fit into this online response form.