Woking Borough Council's Brownfield Land Register (Part 1) comprises all brownfield sites that the Council has assessed as being appropriate for residential development. The register is produced to meet the requirements of The Town and Country Planning (Brownfield Land Register) Regulations 2017 and the Town and Country Planning (Permission in Principle) Order 2017, to prepare and maintain registers of brownfield land considered to be appropriate for residential development.
To be considered suitable for housing, sites must meet the definition of brownfield land and be:
- Available for residential development;
- Suitable for residential development and free from constraints that cannot be mitigated;
- Achievable - development is likely within 15 years; and
- Capable of supporting five or more dwellings, or have an area of at least 0.25ha.
Currently, there are 58 sites included in Part 1 of Woking Borough Council's Brownfield Land Register. The inclusion of sites on Part 1 does not give them any formal status, or grant permission in principle. Planning applications on these sites will be considered on their merits in accordance with the Local Development Plan, national policy and any other material considerations.
Woking Borough Council's Brownfield Land Register comprises:
Brownfield sites allocated for residential development, or mixed use development that includes a residential component, in the Councils emerging draft Site Allocations Development Plan Document. These are assessed as being deliverable and developable against the criteria of the National Planning Policy Framework;
SHLAA Sites that have recently (in 2019) been reviewed and are assessed as being deliverable and developable against the criteria in the National Planning Policy Framework;
Brownfield sites that have been granted planning permission and are either under construction or not started.
Part 2 of the register will be a subset of the sites in Part 1 and will be used to identify sites that the Council considers should be granted permission in principle (PiP). PiP is a tool intended to work alongside existing routes for obtaining planning permission. It can only be granted on housing-led developments and is intended to offer an alternative route to obtaining planning permission.
At the current time, the Council is not granting permission in principle for any sites on Part 1 of its Brownfield Land Register, so is not publishing Part 2 of the register. This is something that the Council will consider further and decide on in due course.