See accompanying Strutt & Parker Planning Document and Cannon Consulting Initial Highways Access and Accessibility Statement.

(Council ref AE27 and AE27a)

The Submission document fails the test of soundness for policy H2 in terms of not being justified. The removal of housing numbers from Rayleigh and in particular from south west Rayleigh is not founded on a robust and credible evidence base and it is not the most appropriate strategy when considered against reasonable alternatives of allocating sufficient housing in a tier 1 category town which meets the Council's sustainability criteria. Furthermore Policy H2 of the Submission DPD is not considered to be sufficiently flexible to deal with any changes to the RSS by being reliant on less sites and again fails the test on flexibility grounds.

The change required to the DPD to make Policy H2 sound is for the inclusion of the site to the south west of Rayleigh for at least 100 houses in the plan period.

Representation submitted in relation to proposed allocation of housing to the south west of Rayleigh and attendance required at examination to support the allocation of this site which is not in the submission document (see other responses to core strategy).