Regional Planning Guidance for the South West was provided by the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions and fed into the Draft Regional Spatial Strategy (RSS). Although the guidance and the requirement to produce a strategy has been revoved, information and links via this section may still be useful to those planners and policy-makers.
Regional Planning Guidance (RPG10) is based on the draft document approved in July 1999 by the South West Regional Planning Conference and the consultation process provided for in PPG 11 'Regional Planning'. It superseded Regional Planning Guidance for the South West issued in 1994, which covered the period to 2011.
RPG:
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provided a regional spatial strategy within which local authority development plans and Local Transport Plans (LTPs) in the South West should be prepared;
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set out a broad development strategy for the period to 2016 and beyond;
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provided the spatial framework for other strategies and programmes.
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The Regional Transport Strategy (RTS) in RPG set the regional context for transportation planning. RPG's long term planning framework sets the context for the future revision of the regional strategy for the South West of England Regional Development Agency (SWRDA).
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Government policies on planning, taken into account in RPG, are set out in Planning Policy Guidance (PPG) Notes, Minerals Planning Guidance (MPG) Notes, circulars and other government statements including the White Papers listed in the Annex. References to such PPGs etc will usually refer to the document and not repeat extracts. Local planning authorities must take RPG into account in preparing their development plans. RPG may also be material to decisions on individual planning applications and appeals. Important principles are set out in boxes. Guidance given in the numbered paragraphs apply directly and is not simply 'supporting text'. Numbered policies indicate key actions to be taken to implement RPG, often indicating the specific responsibilities of local planning authorities and others. However RPG should always be read as a whole and not by reading individual paragraphs, policies or sections without regard to the rest of the document.
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Throughout RPG, reference is made to the Regional Planning Body (RPB). The RPB is responsible for implementation, monitoring and reviews of RPG. The South West Regional Planning Conference and the South West Regional Chamber merged in July 2000 to form the South West of England Regional Assembly. The statutory responsibilities of the South West Regional Assembly have been transferred to the Strategic Leaders Board (May 2009), part of South West Councils, who took this work forward up until summer 2010.
