Development Plan

The Three Rivers Local Plan 1996 – 2011

• Produced by Three Rivers District Council it covers the whole of the District. It contains detailed planning policies and proposals to guide development (other than waste and minerals issues) until they are replaced by policies in the Local Development Framework.
• It was adopted in July 2001. The majority of policies were saved following the Secretary of State's Direction in September 2007 with the exception of 12 policies and a further 25 policies have now been superseded by the adoption of the Core Strategy on the 17 October 2011.

Three Rivers Core Strategy 2011 - 2026

• Produced by Three Rivers District Council it covers the whole of the District and sets out in broad terms how we will plan for and deal with future development. It contains important policies to help address the pressing need for affordable housing and sufficient services such as schooling in the area as well as promoting more sustainable development in general.
• The Core Strategy was adopted on 17 October 2011 and replaces part of the Local Plan.

The Hertfordshire Minerals Local Plan 2002 – 2016 and The Hertfordshire Waste Local Plan 1993 – 2005

• Produced by Hertfordshire County Council, they cover the whole of the County. They contain all detailed planning policy and proposals relating to minerals and waste.
• The Minerals Plan was adopted in March 2007 and all policies are automatically saved for three years. Policies 1-46 (excluding 6) in the Waste plan adopted in January 1999 are saved.
• The County Council is putting together its Waste Development Plan Documents, which will set out a long-term strategy for managing and disposing of waste up to 2016.
• There are a number of different documents currently underway. They will be subject to an independent examination. The documents include:

o        Waste Core Strategy
o        Waste Development Policies
o        Waste Site Allocations and Site Specific Policies

• Further information is available at http://www.hertsdirect.org/envroads/environment/plan/hccdevplan

Supplementary Planning Guidance

In addition to the District Plan, Three Rivers District Council has produced a set of additional documents called supplementary planning guidance (SPG). They give more detail and expand upon policies in the Local Plan.

Government Policy and Planning Guidance

The Local Plan and Supplementary Planning Guidance must be written in accordance with government policy. If Government produce policy more up to date than a Council's District Plan, then the Council must take this into account when considering planning applications. The Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG) is responsible for producing national planning policy.

Changes to the Development Plan

The Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 is changing the structure of development plans:

Coverage	Old Document	To be replaced by New Document
District/ Borough	Local Plan	Local Development Framework
County	Structure Plan	N/A
	Minerals Local Plan	Minerals Local Development Framework
	Waste Local Plan	Waste Local Development Framework
Region	Regional Spatial Strategy	Regional Spatial Strategy

The move to the new system is gradual and, for the next few years, we will be operating with a mixture of old-and new-style documents.

In addition, Supplementary Planning Guidance (SPG) is being replaced by Supplementary Planning Documents (SPD). 

Work on the Three Rivers Local Development Framework has now started. For further information see the Local Development Framework page.

In the meantime, changes have already been made to the current Three Rivers Local Plan 1996-2011: the majority of the policies have been retained (or ‘saved’) but 12 policies have been deleted with effect from 28 September 2007.

Policies have also been saved/deleted from the Hertfordshire Structure Plan and Waste and Minerals Local Plans.