Emerging Article 4 Directions

Article 4 Direction relating to removal of permitted development rights to change of use from Class E (commercial class) to C3 (residential)

On Wednesday 30 October 2024, Cabinet confirmed a non-immediate Article 4 Direction to remove the permitted development rights to change use from Class E (commercial, business or service) to C3 (residential) on protected employment sites within the Borough. This followed the Cabinet approval on Wednesday 13 December 2023 and six week consultation held between Tuesday 30 January and Tuesday 12 March 2024.

The Article 4 Direction will come into force on Thursday 30 January 2025, and from that date any proposal for development specified in the direction, within the protected employment areas set out in BLP Policy ED2, will require planning permission. This is to ensure that we can control and protect the important areas of economic activity within the borough.

The protected employment sites are set out in the Borough Local Plan Policy ED2 and the Article 4 Direction itself. The locations of the protected employment sites can also be viewed using the Interactive Policies Map and adding the layers for Business Areas, Industrial Areas, Mixed Use Areas and Established Employment sites in the Green Belt.

An Article 4 direction enables a local planning authority to withdraw specified permitted development rights across a defined area. Whilst this does not prevent the change of use or development in that location, it ensures that it requires full planning permission and therefore can be more robustly scrutinised by the local authority in relation to their planning policies.

The Council will now proceed to give notice of the confirmation of the Article 4 Direction in a similar manner as it did when the Direction was originally made.

Due to the high number of landowners within the protected employment site affected by this proposed Article 4 Direction, it is not practicable to serve individual notice in this instance, unless the sites have a single landowner. Therefore at least one public notice will be placed in a public location within each site for a period of not less than six weeks.

Documents

• Article 4 Direction and maps
• Justification for introducing an Article 4 Direction
• Public Notice
• Statement of Consultation
• Article 4 Direction FAQ Sheet

Next steps

The Article 4 Direction will come into force Thursday 30 January 2025.