Shaping London: consultation for three mayoral strategies

In October the Mayor issued a draft new London Plan to replace the one that has been in use since February 2008, plus draft strategies for Transport, Economic Development, Air Quality and Water. He published also a report on London's potential housing capacity and the land available to meet it.

Comments have to be made by 5pm on Tuesday 12th January 2010. The London Plan team,Transport for London and the London Development Agency will consider responses, so there is a chance to influence the content and policies in the strategies.

The important one is the London Plan and the other strategies have to accord with it. Only the London Plan, of all the strategies, will be examined in public by a team of Inspectors in 2010.

They will set topics and select participants for the debate based on the responses they read, so responses need to
be precise on which parts of the plan need to be changed, in what way and why.

How does this draft London Plan differ from the current one?

It has a different structure, with chapters on the new context, places, people, economy, climate change, transport, living places/spaces and implementation. The problem is that in order to grasp all the policies that apply to, say, inner London or open space or social
infrastructure, several parts of the plan have to be assessed. Some cross references are poor.

The Blue Ribbon Network, London's greatest open space, has been reduced in coverage since the 2004 plan, when it was a chapter, to about nine pages in the current draft near the end and after Burial Grounds. The draft replacement London Plan has its policies structured in a new way to cover strategic direction, the basis on which Councils and the Mayor should make planning decisions and the content that should be achieved within borough Local Development Frameworks (LDF).

All relevant documents and further information are available here.