The planning system in the UK is primarily intended to regulate land use and guide development. It is the role of the planning system to guide development in the public interest and to ensure fairness and equity.
The planning system in the UK is undergoing some radical changes aimed at speeding up the production of plans as well as making plan preparation more flexible and increasing public involvement in the planning process. The Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 has been the most important piece of planning legislation of recent years. Under the new system all local authorities will produce what is called a Local Development Framework. A Local Development Framework is the name for the collection of planning documents. These planning documents will be used by the local authority to guide development in the Borough. Each of these documents covers a different area / topic of planning policy, it may also cover a particular area or site.
The various documents being produced by Dudley MBC under the new planning system will be published on this website and can be accessed using the links in the menu to the left.
Adoption of the Core Strategy
On the 3rd February 2011, the four Black Country Authorities consisting of Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council, Sandwell Council, Walsall Council and Wolverhampton City Council adopted the Black Country Core Strategy.
The Core Strategy is a spatial planning document that sets out the vision, objectives and strategy for future development in the Black Country to 2026. The Core Strategy is a Development Plan Document and replaces certain policies in Dudley’s Unitary Development Plan (UDP). It sets the planning policy context for the preparation of other local development documents and supplementary planning documents detailed in the Council’s Local Development Scheme. As well as providing the basis for decisions on planning applications, the Core Strategy will also shape regeneration, investment, and growth within the Borough over the next 15 years.
The Core Strategy replaces policies in Dudley’s Unitary Development Plan (UDP), for example the Housing, Employment and Minerals policies within the UDP have now completely been replaced by the Core Strategy. The superseded UDP policies and the Core Strategy policies that replace are contained within the document at the bottom of this page. The UDP which contains the ‘saved’ policies can be accessed via this link Dudley UDP
Supplementary Planning Documents (SPD)
Supplementary Planning Documents (SPDs) provide detail to support policy in higher level Development Plan Documents (DPDs) or saved UDP policies. They undergo a simpler preparation process than DPDs and in particular they are not subject to independent scrutiny by a planning inspector.
Links to those SPDs that are under active preparation or already adopted are can be accessed using the links in the menu to the left.
