Your Neighbourhood, Your City, Your Planet – Have Your Say on Leeds’ Local Plan Update

The draft Local Plan Update is titled ‘Your Neighbourhood, Your City, Your Planet’.  Although it is not intended to deal with all planning issues, it will focus on ways we can shape planning policy to reduce our city’s impact on the environment and help achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2030.

The draft plan is based around five topic areas:

• Carbon reduction - changing the way buildings are built, and how we generate renewable energy.
• Flood risk - making our communities resilient to the impact of flooding, one of the most direct impacts of climate change that Leeds faces.
• Green infrastructure - making the most of our green spaces and natural environment, to help improve the health and well-being of our citizens.
• Place-making – guiding new development to places that offer the best opportunities for active travel and public transport, health & well-being and making the best use of communities’ assets to create ’20-minute neighbourhoods’ where people want to live, work and play. 
• Sustainable infrastructure – integrating low emissions transport and improved digital connectivity, helping reduce journeys by car.

Cllr Helen Hayden, Leeds City Council’s Executive Member for Climate and Infrastructure, said: “The Local Plan plays a key role in setting out our city’s planning policies for the long-term future, and we believe that the climate emergency should be at the forefront of our thinking.  That’s why we are updating those parts of the Plan as a priority.”

“Becoming carbon neutral by 2030 is a massive task which needs a sustained effort from everyone across our city, and some big changes to our policies. At the same time as saving carbon we can also build healthier places, make space for nature and protect ourselves from flooding.  Feedback from residents and businesses is vitally important in creating a better and greener city for everyone.

“We are really keen to hear people’s feedback on the draft Local Plan update, including whether people agree or disagree with our general approach around the five topics and whether there is more we could do to achieve our goals.” 

Have your say in different ways

Consultation on the draft Local Plan update will take place from 19 July to 13 September.

The dedicated website www.leeds.gov.uk/lpu is home to all the information contained within the draft Local Plan. This includes separate sections for the different topic areas, which are available in detailed and short formats.

This means people can read the whole draft plan or just the areas that are of interest, and can contribute their views using our online surveys whether they have read the documents in detail or having read a shorter, more summarised version.

Over the coming weeks, members of the Council’s Planning team will be hosting a series of webinars so people can find out more about the draft Local Plan and its individual topics.

Residents and businesses can also contribute their views via email, post and phone.

Cllr Hayden said: “Planning is the first step in so many things that affect so many people’s lives, sometimes without them even being aware of it. This is an important piece of work, and because of that it is crucial that we hear from everybody that wants to comment on our plan.

“We are working to make the draft Local Plan more accessible than ever before, gathering the views of as many people and businesses as possible to ensure the comments gathered represent varied views from all people across the city.”

To find out more and have your say, visit www.leeds.gov.uk/lpu