Issue - meetings

The Council’s Strategic Planning team is preparing a public consultation regarding Conservation Areas and Locally Listed Buildings which will extend for 6 weeks from the week commencing 1 February to the week commencing 15 March 2021.

This follows on from the findings of the Crawley Conservation Areas and Non-Designated Heritage Assets Review. The Review and its implications were the subject of an earlier item in the Councillors’ Information Bulletin item on Tuesday 22 December 2020. As previously advised, the Review has now been published as part of the evidence supporting the Local Plan Regulation 19 consultation. The documents and appendices making up the Review can be found in the list of evidence base documents the Local Plan Review web page.

The consultation will focus on the following recommendations from the Review:

·         Recommended revisions to existing Conservation Area boundaries,

·         New Conservation Areas,

·         An updated list of Locally Listed Buildings

These are being consulted on separately to the Local Plan process because the procedures for the designation of Conservation Areas and Locally Listed Buildings sit outside the Local Plan. Other recommendations from the Review, concerning Historic Parks and Gardens and Areas of Special Local Character, are being pursued as part of the Local Plan Review process. The intention is that this separate consultation and the subsequent decision-making processes will be completed in time to be reflected in the final adopted version of the Local Plan and Local Plan Map.

The consultation materials will be made available on-line only, in accordance with current social distancing requirements and in line with temporary provisions made in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. The consultation will be given an appropriate level of publicity, including via local media and social media. The Council will also be writing to property owners affected by the changes, and to other relevant stakeholders, including all CBC Councillors, Crawley’s Conservation Area Committees and Neighbourhood Forums, Historic England, other national amenity bodies, and Crawley Museum Society.

Following the consultation and the consideration of responses, different processes for decision-making will apply to each type of ‘heritage asset’, in accordance with the Council’s procedures. New Conservation Areas and changes to Conservation Area boundaries will need to be decided by Cabinet. The updated list of Locally Listed Buildings will meanwhile be adopted as a Supplementary Planning Document via an executive decision by the Cabinet Portfolio Member for Planning and Economic Development.