Affordable housing |
Social rented (normally owned by Housing Associations as registered providers, with rents set in accordance with the national rent regime), affordable rented (where the rent is set to be no more than 80% of the local market rent (including service charges, where applicable)) and intermediate housing (homes for sale and rent provided at a cost above social rent, but below market levels), provided to eligible households whose needs are not met by the market, having regard to local incomes and local house prices. Intermediate housing can include shared equity (shared ownership and equity loans), other low cost homes for sale that remain at an affordable price. Affordable housing should include provisions to remain at an affordable price for future eligible households or, where this is not possible, for the subsidy to be recycled for alternative affordable housing provision. |
Air Quality Management Area |
An area designated by the council that is not meeting national air quality objectives. |
Amenity |
The pleasant or normally satisfactory aspects of a location which contribute to its overall character and the enjoyment of residents or visitors |
Ancient Woodland |
Semi-natural woodlands which have been in existence since 1600 AD or before. |
Areas of poorer quality agricultural land |
Those graded lower under the Agricultural Land Classification (where the best and most versatile agricultural land has been graded as 1, 2 and 3a). |
Biodiversity |
The variety of life on Earth. |
Brownfield land |
Land that has been previously developed, but not including land that is or has been occupied by agricultural or forestry buildings, land that has been restored or returned to farmland or a natural state where the remains of any structures have blended into the landscape in the process of time, land in built-up areas used as private residential gardens, or open space of public value. |
Built tourist accommodation |
Permanent tourist accommodation such as hotels, guesthouses, B&Bs and holiday lets (homes restricted to holiday use). This does not include more temporary and mobile units such as caravans (even though these may remain in situ for many years) or second homes. |
Caravan and camping sites |
Sites which primarily provide accommodation in temporary and mobile units such as static caravans, pitches for touring caravans, tents or yurts. |
Coastal Change Management Area |
An area likely to be affected by coastal change (physical change to the shoreline through erosion, coastal landslip, permanent inundation or coastal accretion). These will be defined through future policy. |
Community Infrastructure |
A wide ranging definition including transport, flood defences, schools, hospitals, and other health and social care facilities, such as play areas, parks and green spaces, cultural and sports facilities, district heating schemes and police stations and other community safety facilities |
Community Infrastructure Levy |
A levy allowing the councils to raise funds from owners or developers of land undertaking new building projects in the area. |
Community Travel Exchange |
A Community Travel Exchange has the aim of reducing the need to travel and distance travelled in rural areas by providing key services and collective transport opportunities locally. The concept looks to reinforce traditional village centres by reinstating services which were traditionally provided locally for example a parcel collection point and providing better access to non-local services such as library services. The services would be provided at, or accessed from, a single which could be located in or associated with a village hall, parish office or church. |
Development Plan |
Defined in section 38 of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 to include adopted Local Plans and neighbourhood development plans. It no longer includes regional strategies or county structure plans. |
Disabled people |
People have a disability if they have a physical or mental impairment, and that impairment has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on their ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities. These persons include, but are not limited to, people with ambulatory difficulties, blindness, learning difficulties, autism and mental health needs. |
Dorset Historic Environment Record |
Information service that seek to provide access to comprehensive and dynamic resources relating to the historic environment of Dorset for public benefit and use. |
Edge of centre |
For retail purposes, a location that is well connected and up to 300 metres of the primary shopping area. For all other main town centre uses, a location within 300 metres of a town centre boundary. For office development, this includes locations outside the town centre but within 500 metres of a public transport interchange. In determining whether a site falls within the definition of edge of centre, account will also be taken of local circumstances. |
Education and training facilities |
Includes pre-school nursery provision, schools and colleges of further education (whether provided by the local education authority or independently), work-based learning and skills training and adult and community learning centres, and field study centres. It may also include cultural learning that can be provided through arts centres, visitor centres, libraries and museums. |
Employment |
For the purposes of this plan employment includes development in the B Use Classes such as offices, workshops and industrial premises, storage and distribution warehouses and sui generis uses commonly found on industrial estates. It also applies to non B class development which provides direct, on-going local employment opportunities such as tourism and retail. It does not apply to development that indirectly benefits the local economy (such as housing), and businesses such as farming, care homes and tourist accommodation providers, which are covered in other policies of the plan. |
Employment sites |
Land or premises that are presently in an employment use, or previously in an employment use if now vacant. |
Environmental Impact Assessment |
A procedure to be followed for certain types of project to ensure that decisions are made in full knowledge of any likely significant effects on the environment. |
Geodiversity |
The range of rocks, minerals, fossils, soils and landforms. |
Green Infrastructure |
A network of multi-functional green space, urban and rural, which is capable of delivering a wide range of environmental and quality of life benefits for local communities. |
Habitat |
The place in which a species of animal or plant lives, providing a particular set of environmental conditions. Often used in a wider sense, referring to major assemblages or communities of plants and animals found together. |
Heritage Asset |
A building, monument, site, place, area or landscape identified as having a degree of significance meriting consideration in planning decisions, because of its heritage interest. They are likely to hold evidence of the substance and evolution of places, and of the people and cultures that made them. Designated heritage assets include World Heritage Sites, Scheduled Monuments, Listed Buildings, Protected Wreck Sites, Registered Parks and Gardens, Registered Battlefields and Conservation Areas designated under the relevant legislation. Features of a heritage asset include those which contribute to its special historical, archaeological, social, artistic or architectural interest. |
Heritage Coast |
A non-statutory designation defining areas of undeveloped coastline which are managed to conserve their natural beauty and, where appropriate, to improve accessibility for visitors. |
In harmony |
Forming a pleasing whole, and being sensitive to its surrounds |
Live/work development |
A property that is specifically designed for dual use – a combination of residential and employment space. It often requires a mixture of residential and business rates. Though live/work and home-working are closely related there are differences. A home-working property will have been designed primarily for residential use. A live/work property will often allow for a much higher intensity of work use. |
Local centres / larger local centres |
Local centres include a range of small shops of a local nature, serving a small catchment. Typically, local centres might include, amongst other shops, a small supermarket, a newsagent, a sub post office and a pharmacy. Other facilities could include a hot food takeaway and launderette. Large villages may perform the role of a local centre. Small parades of shops purely of neighbourhood significance are not regarded as centres. Larger local centres in the plan area include Beaminster, Chickerell, Easton, West Bay, Fortuneswell and Littlemoor. |
Local community buildings and structures |
Can include shops, financial and professional services, schools, doctors surgeries, village halls, places of worship, restaurants, public houses, sports facilities and recreational open space normally used by the local community in which it is located. |
Local Enterprise Partnership |
A body, designated by the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, established for the purpose of creating or improving the conditions for economic growth in an area. |
Local Nature Partnership |
A body, designated by the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, established for the purpose of protecting and improving the natural environment in an area and the benefits derived from it. |
Local Plan |
The plan for the future development of the local area, drawn up by the local planning authority in consultation with the community. In law this is described as the development plan documents adopted under the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004. |
Local Planning Authority |
The public authority whose duty it is to carry out specific planning functions for a particular area. |
Low carbon and renewable energy |
Energy for heating and cooling as well as generating electricity, provided through renewable sources that occur naturally and repeatedly in the environment (eg wind, water, solar, biomass and geothermal heat) or through lLow carbon technologies which generate significantly less carbon emissions than compared to conventional use of fossil fuels. |
Main town centre uses |
Retail development (including warehouse clubs and factory outlet centres); leisure, entertainment facilities, the more intensive sport and recreation uses (including cinemas, restaurants, drive-through restaurants, bars and pubs, night-clubs, casinos, health and fitness centres, indoor bowling centres, and bingo halls); offices; and arts, culture and tourism development (including theatres, museums, galleries and concert halls, hotels and conference facilities). |
Major Hazards |
Major hazard installations and pipelines, licensed explosive sites and nuclear installations, around which Health and Safety Executive (and Office for Nuclear Regulation) consultation distances to mitigate the consequences to public safety of major accidents may apply. |
Nationally or internationally designated wildlife sites |
All sites of national, European and international importance are Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs, notified by Natural England under the Wildlife & Countryside Act 1981 for their special scientific interest). They will include Ramsar sites (designated under the Ramsar Convention on the Conservation of Wetlands of International Importance), Special Areas of Conservation (SACs, designated under EC Directive 92/43 on the conservation of natural habitats and wild fauna and flora), and National Nature Reserves (NNRs, designated by Natural England). Candidate sites are also included. |
Nature Improvement Area |
Nature Improvement Areas are large, discrete areas that can deliver a step change in nature conservation, where a local partnership has a shared vision for their natural environment. Actions will be coordinated by a local partnership to deliver significant improvements for wildlife, through the management and creation of existing wildlife sites, wildlife corridors and stepping stones, restoration areas (where priority habitats are created) and buffer zones (to reduce pressures on existing wildlife sites). A national grant scheme, coordinated by the central government Department for Food and Rural Affairs, has been established to pilot this work. Wild Purbeck (which includes and area around Crossways in West Dorset) has been selected as one of 12 national pilots. Local Nature Improvement Areas may be developed based on the lesson learnt fro the national projects. |
Neighbourhood Development Plan |
A plan prepared by a Parish Council or Neighbourhood Forum for a particular neighbourhood area (made under the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 and the Planning and the Localism Act 2011). |
Open space |
All open space of public value, including not
just land, but also areas of water (such as rivers and lakes)
which offer important opportunities for sport and recreation and
can act as a visual amenity.
|
Open market housing |
Homes available for sale on the open market without restriction. |
Original building |
A building as it existed on 1 July 1948 or, if constructed after 1 July 1948, as it was built originally. |
Out of centre |
A location which is not in or on the edge of a centre but not necessarily outside the urban area. |
Out of town |
A location out of centre that is outside the existing urban area. |
Planning condition |
A condition imposed on a grant of planning permission (in accordance with the Town and Country Planning Act 1990) or a condition included in a Local Development Order or Neighbourhood Development Order. |
Planning obligation |
A legally enforceable obligation entered into under section 106 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 to mitigate the impacts of a development proposal. |
Pollution |
Anything that affects the quality of land, air, water or soils, which might lead to an adverse impact on human health, the natural environment or general amenity. Pollution can arise from a range of emissions, including smoke, fumes, gases, dust, steam, odour, noise and light. |
Protected species |
Species specially protected by the law, primarily under Schedules 1 (birds), 5 (amphibians, reptiles & mammals), and 8 (plants) of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. |
Residential care accommodation |
Refers to care homes and other forms of supported housing such as close care schemes, extra care schemes, and continuing care retirement communities. These are normally classed as residential institutions (under Class C2 of the Town & country Planning (Use Classes) Order 1987) or sui generis and will have on-site care services (ranging from help with washing, dressing and giving medication, to having a qualified nurse on duty twenty-four hours a day), and the occupants will normally be dependant on this care and less mobile than occupiers of sheltered accommodation. Sheltered or similar age-restricted housing schemes for older persons fall within the same use class as dwelling houses (Class C3 of the Town & country Planning (Use Classes) Order 1987) and are not considered to be care accommodation. |
Retail development |
Includes those uses classified as “A1” by the Use Classes Order - development for the retail sale of goods to the public. It can be sub divided into two categories: convenience shopping and comparison shopping. Convenience retailing is the provision of everyday essential items, including food, drinks, newspapers/magazines and confectionery. Comparison retailing is the provision of items not obtained on a frequent basis, including clothing, footwear, household and recreational goods. Retail development is a main town centre use. |
Scheduled Monument |
Scheduling refers to the legal system for protecting nationally important monuments and archaeological remains in England. Scheduled monuments are added to the ‘Schedule’ (the list of legally-protected monuments) by the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, who is advised by Historic England. Not all scheduled monuments are ancient. Some contain standing buildings or ruins, while others have no visible remains above ground. |
Setting |
The surroundings in which a heritage asset is experienced. Its extent is not fixed and may change as the asset and its surroundings evolve. Elements of a setting may make a positive or negative contribution to the significance of an asset, may affect the ability to appreciate that significance or may be neutral. The setting may include:
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Shoreline Management Plan |
A plan providing a large-scale assessment of the risk to people and to the developed, historic and natural environment associated with coastal processes. |
Significance |
The value of an asset (environmental, economic and social) to this and future generations because of its special interest. That interest may, for example, be archaeological, architectural, artistic or historic. |
Site of Nature Conservation Interest (SNCI) |
Sites selected for their habitat or species interest. In Dorset these sites are selected by an SNCI Panel with representatives of Dorset Wildlife Trust, Dorset Environmental Records Centre, Natural England and Dorset County Council. |
Sui Generis |
Uses that do not fall within any use class |
Supplementary Planning Documents |
Documents which add further detail to the policies in the Local Plan. They can be used to provide further guidance for development on specific sites, or on particular issues, such as design. They are capable of being a material consideration in planning decisions but are not part of the development plan. |
Sustainable development |
Can be described as ‘development which meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’. It is about supporting growth and innovation for jobs and prosperity, creating a high quality built environment with accessible local services and the homes to meet current and future needs, whilst protecting and enhancing our environment, using natural resources wisely and minimizing waste and pollution. |
Tourism |
All activities of visitors, including overnight visitors and same-day visitors, visits for business purposes as well as for holidays and recreation. |
Transport Assessment |
A comprehensive and systematic process that sets out transport issues relating to a proposed development. It identifies what measures will be required to improve accessibility and safety for all modes of travel, particularly for alternatives to the car such as walking, cycling and public transport and what measures will need to be taken to deal with the anticipated transport impacts of the development. A more simplified version may be acceptable where it is agreed the transport issues arising out of development proposals are limited and a full transport assessment is not required. |
Travel plan |
A long-term management strategy for an organisation or site that seeks to deliver sustainable transport objectives through action and is articulated in a document that is regularly reviewed. |
Use class |
The Town and Country Planning (Use Classes) Order 1987 (as amended) puts uses of land and buildings into various categories known as 'Use Classes'. In many cases involving similar types of use, a change of use of a building or land does not need planning permission. Planning permission is not needed when both the present and proposed uses fall within the same ‘class’, or if the Town and Country Planning (Use Classes) Order says that a change of class is permitted to another specified class. For example, a greengrocer’s shop could be changed to a shoe shop without permission as these uses fall within the same ‘class’, and a restaurant could be changed to a shop or a estate agency as the Use Class Order allows this type of change to occur without requiring planning permission. Most external building work associated with a change of use is likely to require planning permission. |
Veteran tree |
A tree which, because of its great age, size or condition is of exceptional value for wildlife, in the landscape, or culturally. |
Wildlife corridor |
An area of habitat connecting wildlife populations. |
World Heritage Coast |
An informal term used to include both the Dorset and East Devon Coast World Heritage Site, and the immediate towns and countryside which provide the education, accommodation and transport facilities that enable people to visit and understand the World Heritage Site. |
World Heritage Site |
An area considered to be of outstanding universal value, that meets one or more of the four criteria set out by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO). In Dorset, the World Heritage Site refers to the Dorset and East Devon Coast World Heritage Site, popularly known as the ‘Jurassic Coast', which was designated because it is considered to be an outstanding example representing major stages of the Earth's history, including the record of life, significant ongoing geological processes in the development of landforms, and significant geomorphic or physiographic features. |