LATEST UPDATES

1. CRAG’s submission to the Northumberland Local Plan, Draft Plan (Regulation 19) 2019

CRAG submitted its views in March 2019. Amongst other things, we:

• support the proposed settlement boundaries for Rothbury and Thropton.
• believe that there should be a specific target to create more allotments, proportional to the increase in population and the sustainability challenges that lie ahead.
• are concerned that the policy on light pollution fails to limit adverse impacts. The Plan should contain more initiatives to reduce light pollution, for example by switching off streetlights from late at night to early in the morning, or using night-time dimmers, without adverse impacts on public safety. After consultation with the International Dark-Sky Association, we proposed the following policy: ‘For areas that lie within five miles from the boundary of the Northumberland International Dark Sky Park, all new streetlights must be fully compliant with the Northumberland National Park’s Dark Sky Park Lighting Master Plan. A limit of 600 lumens for any new residential lights should be adopted, and these lights should be properly shielded/reflected. No new street lights should be added, unless a good case has been made that not doing so would compromise public safety. Any new streetlights would need to be shielded from residential properties. Low-impact lighting that shines downwards should be used, for example horizontal ‘flat glass’ lighting. Any new lighting should emit minimal amounts of harmful short-wavelength light into the night-time environment. Such lighting must not exceed a correlated colour temperature of 3000 Kelvins. Any deviation from this policy would need to be argued for on the basis of great public interest, for example on the basis of a need to facilitate sports.’
• believe that clearer policies are needed to avoid inappropriate siting of commercial-scale wind turbines (that feed into the National Grid).

2. Updates related to planning applications in and around Rothbury:

• CRAG submitted an objection to the building of 37 residential dwellings at land off Percy Terrace (Pennine Way), Bellingham (ref: 16/04680/OUT).
• CRAG issued three formal objections against Northumberland Estates’ plan to build 11 holiday lodges (ref. 16/04231/FUL) on land south of Rothbury Golf Club.
• CRAG objected to an application for 9 dwellings along Hillside Road West (Ref: 16/01871/OUT).
• CRAG submitted two formal complaints to the Ombudsman against Northumberland County Council’s Planning Committee with respect to the decision made for the development of 57 houses on land south of Lordenshaw Drive and Silverton Lane (Ref: 14/03266/FUL).

Though planning permission was unfortunately granted for each of the above, we have learned a great deal from our experiences to date, and aim to continue developing our understanding and strategies in support of our aims