Part B

The Policies

(1)Chapter 4: Area Based Policies

4.1 It is important that the Council allocates land for various uses to help deliver the Vision and objectives set out in the Core Strategy and reproduced here in Chapter 3. It is also important that certain areas are designated and protected, whether for specific types of development or as open space.

4.2 Several Core Strategy policies have guided the selection of areas for certain types of uses or protection from development, including:

• Policy CS2 The Location and Nature of Development
• Policy CS4 Protecting our Assets
• Policy CS13 Planning for Jobs Growth
• Policy CS14 Retail Development
• Policy CS16 Green Infrastructure, Sport and Recreation

4.3 This Chapter does not seek to repeat these policies, but instead focuses on which approach to take to areas that may be allocated for physical development or retained or developed for open space or nature conservation purposes.

4.4 Policy CS16 of the Core Strategy promotes the concept of the continuation and extension of the Green Corridor approach that was set out within the 1997 Ipswich Local Plan. Green corridors can perform many functions: they may provide recreation areas or walking or cycling routes for people, contribute to the public realm and setting of parts of the town, or provide vital connections between habitats for use by wildlife. Green corridors will not necessarily perform all three of these functions.

4.5 To reflect the variation in functions that green corridors can perform, two policies follow. The first deals with green corridors primarily used by people for recreation, amenity or transport (although wildlife may also use them). The second policy addresses the Ipswich ecological network, which supports biodiversity.

4.6 This policy adds detail to the strategic approach set out in Core Strategy Policy CS16, by broadly identifying green corridors (including the ‘blue corridor’ of the river valley) and ensuring that any development permitted within them under other policies of this plan would not compromise the corridor function.

4.7 The Council’s Open Space Study 2009⁵ describes green corridors as linear features mostly open in character e.g. footpaths, riverside paths and bridleways, which act as wildlife corridors and attractive, safe, off-road links between residential areas or open spaces or other destinations. Their value is increased if they link up to form a network and, for Ipswich, they may also link to the open countryside in neighbouring authority areas. They help to create urban environments that are attractive, clean and safe.

4.8 Ipswich benefits from an important and continuous green corridor in the form of the river path which follows the river from the Waterfront westwards through to Sproughton. Enhancing the river path is a key aim of the Ipswich River Strategy. Elsewhere in this plan pedestrian and cycle bridges are proposed across the river in the west of the Borough to link up communities and facilities north and south of the river, and east of Stoke Bridge.

4.9 On the periphery of the Borough there are other important areas of natural and semi-natural green space which provide corridor functions, for example Belstead Brook, Orwell County Park and Rushmere Heath.

4.10 The Haven Gateway Green Infrastructure Strategy⁶ recognised their value but also identified gaps, particularly to the north and east. Thus the Council’s adopted Core Strategy, through policy CS16, seeks to link radial green corridors with a publicly accessible ‘green rim’ around Ipswich. The Council will take opportunities through development, such as at the Northern Fringe, which is addressed through Core Strategy policy CS10, to provide links in the green rim where currently there are gaps.

4.11 Some of the green rim will fall outside the Borough where the boundary is very tightly drawn. Where this is the case, the Council will work with partners across the Ipswich Policy Area to prioritise and address those gaps and provide links into the strategic walking and cycling route network, for example:

• eastwards to the coast via the Sandlings Walk
• south-eastwards via the Stour and Orwell Walk
• southwards via Belstead Brook Park to Alton Water
• northwards via the Fonnereau Way to the Fynn Valley.

4.12 The Council will develop a more detailed map of the green corridors based on recreational open spaces and existing rights of way and permissive routes. Plan 1 illustrates the broad location of the corridors.

4.13 The Government’s stated aim in the NPPF⁷ is to halt the overall decline in biodiversity. The planning system is required to minimise impacts on biodiversity and provide net gains where possible, through measures including establishing ecological networks. Policies should support the creation, protection, enhancement and management of biodiversity networks.

4.14 The NPPF⁸ also states that planning policies should identify and map components of the local ecological networks, including the hierarchy of international, national and locally designated sites of importance for biodiversity, wildlife corridors and stepping stones that connect them and areas identified by local partnerships for habitat restoration or creation. They should also promote the preservation, restoration and re-creation of ecological networks.

4.15 Ecological networks are an effective way to conserve wildlife in environments that have become fragmented by human activities⁹. An ecological network is defined as a collection of high quality and biodiverse habitats linked by ecological connections between them that enable species to move. The connections may be continuous corridors or stepping stones. Enabling species to move between sites makes them more resilient to change and improves their long term viability in the face of challenges such as climate change.

4.16 Thus the policy has twin aims: to protect designated wildlife sites as appropriate to their position in the hierarchy of designated sites, and to protect, enhance and restore where possible links between them, which may be continuous links or stepping stones. The links may consist of roadside verges, railway lines or even areas covered by private gardens. Planning control does not extend to the management of such spaces, but there is advice available, for example on how to improve the attractiveness of gardens to wildlife.

4.17 The policy reflects national strategic priorities in the Natural Environment White Paper ‘The Natural Choice’ June 2011 and the NPPF, and local strategic priorities in terms of developing ecological networks.

4.18 The Ipswich ecological network consists of:

• core areas of high ecological value, which form the heart of the network – these are primarily the internationally, nationally, and sub-regionally designated biodiversity sites (ranked 1 – 2 in the Ipswich Wildlife Audit). Core areas also include sites ranked 3 - 4 through the Ipswich Wildlife Audit, some of which are also allocated for development. This is not considered incompatible with their ecological network role, as careful design and layout can retain or enhance appropriate elements of habitat;
• core area buffer zones, which surround core areas and stepping stones, to protect them from adverse impacts - these vary in width from 400m around international and national sites to 100m around Biodiversity Action Plan habitats and non-designated sites;
• corridors and stepping stones, which improve connectivity between core areas enabling species to move, feed, disperse, migrate or reproduce; and
• corridor buffer zones, many of which cover existing built up areas, where encouragement will be given to enhancing the corridor function where possible.

4.19 Those core areas which consist of internationally, nationally, sub-regionally and locally designated wildlife sites are shown on the policies map. The wider ecological network including the buffer zones is shown on a separate plan. It develops further the wildlife corridors approach taken in the 1997 Ipswich Local Plan (shown in Plan 2 of that document). Ecological networks do not respect administrative boundaries and, therefore, the Council will work with partners in the Ipswich Policy Area to ensure that networks connect across and around district and borough boundaries.

4.20 Designated biodiversity and geodiversity sites in Ipswich are as follows. Internationally designated biodiversity sites are protected by statute.

Internationally designated sites

1 Ramsar Site: Orwell Estuary
1 Special Protection Area for birds: Orwell Estuary

Nationally designated sites

3 Sites of Special Scientific Interest: Bixley Heath, Stoke Tunnel Cutting (geological interest), Orwell Estuary (in two sections).

Locally designated sites

19 County Wildlife Sites
9 Local Nature Reserves, wholly or partly inside the Borough boundary

4.21 The aim of the policy is not to stifle development within the corridors or buffers of the ecological network. It is to ensure that, where development proposals come forward for consideration, the corridor function is maintained and enhanced where possible, for example through the design and layout of the scheme.

4.22 The ecological network map is shown on Plan 2. Although the identified network and buffer areas will be the priority for enhancement, the ‘white’ areas on the map in between are also important for wildlife. This is particularly the case for more mobile animals such as birds and flying insects. Here measures such as wildlife gardening, verge and green space management and planting street trees could greatly enhance its value to wildlife and help to extend the network identified on the map.

4.23 Ancient woodland is an area that has been continuously wooded since at least 1600 AD and, as such, it is an irreplaceable natural resource, which once lost cannot be recreated. Ipswich has one area of ancient woodland at Brazier’s Wood near Ravenswood. The finite nature of this natural resource merits its strong protection. Veteran trees are addressed through Core Strategy policy DM10.

4.24 The Council’s Open Space and Biodiversity Policy includes a corporate target to increase canopy cover across the Borough. Landscaping schemes associated with new developments provide an opportunity to increase the Borough’s canopy cover, including through the provision of street trees. They also provide an important opportunity to include other plants which support biodiversity, particularly nectar rich plants.

4.25 Ipswich is set within a high quality landscape at the convergence of three distinctive landscape character areas defined by Natural England: the South Norfolk and High Suffolk Claylands, the South Suffolk and North Essex Claylands and the Suffolk Coast and Heaths, part of which is designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Suffolk County Council has also developed a finer grain landscape character assessment. The Borough boundary includes small amounts of countryside to the north-west, north-east and south-east of the urban area.

4.26 One of the principles of planning set out in the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) is that it should recognise the intrinsic character and beauty of the countryside. Together with peripheral designated open spaces, the countryside around the Ipswich urban area provides an attractive setting for the town and links into its ecological and green corridor networks. The creation of sporadic and isolated development in the countryside that is not connected with the essential requirements of agriculture will be discouraged.

4.27 Ipswich also contains a small area of the Suffolk Coast and Heaths Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) on the southern boundary of the Borough. The NPPF sets out the approach to considering major development applications within the AONB in paragraph 116.

4.28 The NPPF supports rural tourism and leisure developments which respect the character of the countryside. However, isolated homes in the countryside should be avoided unless there are special circumstances to justify them.

4.29 Ipswich has a tightly drawn Borough boundary so countryside at the periphery of the Borough is not physically remote from the urban area. However development which would be relatively isolated in terms of access to public transport and community facilities should be avoided.

4.30 Impact on the character of the Ipswich countryside will be assessed in relation to the Suffolk County Council character assessment analysis.

4.31 Areas of countryside are defined on the policies map.

4.32 The established Employment Areas across the Borough represent very significant clusters of employers providing jobs and, therefore, need to be safeguarded.

4.33 The jobs growth target set out in the focused review Core Strategy means that protecting against the loss of employment areas is important. The list contained in this policy contains the town’s main existing and proposed employment areas.

4.34 All the existing employment areas have been reviewed and boundaries amended where appropriate. Several employment areas formerly identified through the 1997 Local Plan have been deleted, because the uses have changed entirely (e.g. former area ‘t’ Celestion/Bull Motors Foxhall Road) or to a significant extent (e.g. former area ‘c’ Eastway Business Park, Sproughton Road/Europa Way). Former area ‘u’ Rose Hill / north of Felixstowe Road has also been deleted. The spatial strategy set out in Core Strategy policy CS2 indicates areas in and around district centres as a focus for housing growth and community facilities. The Felixstowe Road employment area is located close to Felixstowe Road District Centre and, therefore, housing and community facilities are preferred uses.

4.35 New employment areas have been designated at Ipswich Business Park north of Whitton Lane (area 1) and Airport Farm Kennels south of Ravenswood (area 16 above). These reflect proposed employment land allocations set out in policy DM42 (see chapter 5) which are needed to provide an adequate employment land supply in terms of quantity and quality.

4.36 The distribution of employment areas across the Borough means that they are accessible to all the main residential neighbourhoods, providing the possibility of job opportunities close to where people live. Protecting the employment areas for employment uses also retains choice of locations across the Borough for businesses to locate in. As consolidated employment areas, operational requirements such as 24 hour working or heavy goods access are also more likely to be capable of being met without adversely affecting the amenity of residential areas.

4.37 District and Local Centres perform an important role serving, to varying degrees, the day-to-day convenience, food and services needs of their local resident catchment populations. Ipswich contains 12 existing District Centres and 34 Local Centres (with additional centres of both types proposed through the Core Strategy).

4.38 The District Centres are the more strongly performing centres and rely on a stronger convenience retail offer to underpin their function, vitality and viability. All the District Centres contain a supermarket. The District Centres also tend to be located on radial routes and as such benefit from some passing trade.

4.39 The Local Centres tend to contain fewer units that the District Centres and offer a more limited diversity of uses. However, they remain an important facility for meeting people’s every day needs.

4.40 The District and Local Centres are important to the spatial strategy for the Borough. As well as retail centres they are also the focus for community facilities and higher density housing development. This approach to focusing development in and around centres provides the opportunity for people to make some sustainable travel choices and supports the centres’ vitality and viability.

4.41 A health check of the District and Local Centres conducted as part of the Retail and Commercial Leisure Study in 2010 concluded that the majority of Ipswich’s District and Local Centres are healthy, vital and viable.

4.42 The boundaries of the District and Local Centres are shown on the policies map and, within them, Policy DM21 applies to development proposals.

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⁵ Open Space, Sport and Recreation Facilities Study 2009, PMP ⁶ Haven Gateway Green Infrastructure Strategy, April 2008 The Landscape Partnership ⁷ National Planning Policy Framework March 2012 paragraphs 109 & 114 ⁸ National Planning Policy Framework March 2012 paragraph 117 ⁹ Making Space for Nature: A review of England’s Wildlife Sites and Ecological Network, Prof Sir John Lawton, DEFRA, September 2010