Rochford Area Action Plan Submission

POLICY 1 - ROCFORD AREA ACTION PLAN FRAMEWORK (Page 27) - to ensure that all heritage assets including archaeological deposits are appropriately considered, the Policy should be extended by addition of a further bullet point (number 7), to read,
'Any new proposals must also ensure appropriate consideration of above ground heritage assets and below ground archaeological deposits.'

POLICY 5 -ROCHFORD'S CHARACTER AREAS (Page 39) - to ensure that all heritage assets including archaeological deposits are appropriately considered, the Policy should be extended by addition of a further bullet point (number 5), to read,
'Any new proposals must also ensure appropriate consideration of above ground heritage assets and below ground archaeological deposits.'

Whilst the reference to Community Infrastructure in Section 6.4 of the Area Action Plan is welcomed, the text should be augmented with reference to specific types of community infrastructure, such as education and other community public servicers, for which funding contributions will be sought from new development. This would ensure that new development in the town centre was fully engaged and contributing to the Area Action Plan's intention to enhance the role of the town centre as the focus for the local community.

Overall the Area Action Plan well represents the above ground heritage assets within the town centre, including the listed buildings which are discussed within the context of the layout of the historic town. However, the below ground historic environment assets are not identified in the document. To ensure that all elements of the historic environment are appropriately represented within the Area Action Plan, alterations should be made to the text as follows,

Section 2.2, paragraph 1, 'Historical evolution and Conservation Area' - the paragraph should be extended by inclusion of new additional text, to read,
'Archaeological deposits relating to the development of the medieval and post medieval town are likely to survive in particular around the central Market Square and its axial road system as described above. All new development should incorporate a mitigation strategy for the preservation and/recording of such deposits.'

The Rochford Area Action Plan makes welcome references and statements to Sustainable Development as part of Rochford planning and policy context, for instance on pages 10 and 23 of the document. However, it is not clear how the Area Action Plan will ensure that development within Rochford will be sustainable and resilient to the effects from extreme weather patterns/events experienced now and from future changes to our climate, for example, surface water flooding. It is considered that the Rochford Action Area Plan should positively complement content within the Core Strategy, for instance paragraph 8.3 (page 77), and the Development Management Document, for instance paragraph 2.5 (page 16), where the importance of reducing the District's carbon emissions and adapting to climate change at a local level is recognised.

To provide the necessary clarity on this issue the Submission Document should be altered by inclusion in Section 3.1, after the paragraph beginning 'Good accessibility -...', a new additional paragraph to read,

'Rochford, like many other Towns, will be vulnerable to unavoidable climate change and extreme weather events in the future, such as surface water flooding and exposure to extremely high and cold temperatures. To ensure the sustainability of Rochford's economy, continued preservation of the historic fabric and protection of green-spaces in the long-term development proposals will be required to take account of, and be adaptable to, the expected changes in local climate conditions, throughout the proposed lifetime of the development. All new developments should reduce predicted CO2 emissions using a combination of building performance improvements, small scale on-site renewable energy and/or efficient supply of heat, cooling and power.'