Hastings Town Centre and Bohemia Area Action Plan

About this Consultation

This is the first consultation stage in the preparation of the Hastings Town Centre & Bohemia Area Action Plan as required by Regulation 18 of the Town & Country Planning (Local Development) (England) Regulations (as amended). This consultation document contains a series of preferred approaches and presents the Council's emerging thinking based on evidence available to-date. We recognise that further refinement may be needed in the light of comments made through this public consultation. This first version of the Plan provides a basis for local residents, businesses and other interested parties to comment on the preferred approaches before any firm decisions are taken.

The document has been prepared following two key stakeholder events as part of an earlier informal public consultation exercise. These stakeholder events were part of an information gathering stage in the preparation of the Action Plan, which has helped to identify issues and opportunities in the Town Centre and Bohemia area. A report on the consultation undertaken so far and the comments received is available at www.hastings.gov.uk/aapconsultation

Although a lot of work has already been carried out to prepare this consultation draft of the Area Action Plan, it is not the Council's final view of what the Plan should contain. This is your opportunity to influence the Action Plan and to shape the development we want to make happen in the area together with the policies that should be used in the planning application process to manage development in the area.

To help people contribute effectively, a series of questions have been included in this document. We are specifically seeking your views on these questions.

Questions are asked at the end of each section about the preferred approach being put forward. In making your comments you may find it helpful to consider the following:

• Is the policy or opportunity area/site the best way of achieving the Area Action Plan vision and objectives?
• Is the policy or opportunity area/site needed?
• Are opportunity sites considered in the right way?
• Is there anything that makes the policy or opportunity area/site unacceptable?
• Are there any further policies needed?
• Are there other opportunity sites that should be considered?

How you can get involved

This consultation is running for 12 weeks from 10am on Monday 2 July until 4pm on Monday 24 September 2018. You can make your comments at any point during this period, using the following methods:

Online - The easiest way to make your comments is online. Visit our website at www.hastings.gov.uk/aapconsultation and follow the links provided.

Paper forms – paper copies of our response form are available from our offices, or can be downloaded from the website using the address above.

Comment forms should be returned by email to fplanning@hastings.gov.uk or post to:

Hastings Town Centre & Bohemia Area Action Plan consultation

Planning Policy

Hastings Borough Council

Muriel Matters House

Breeds Place

Hastings

East Sussex

TN34 3UY

All comments must be submitted by 4pm on 24 September 2018

Next steps

Following this consultation, we will analyse all the comments received and where appropriate, incorporate them into the final draft of the Hastings Town Centre & Bohemia Area Action Plan (known as the "Proposed Submission version). Feedback will be provided to all those who commented on this consultation draft.

The final draft or Proposed Submission Town Centre & Bohemia Area Action Plan (AAP) will be subject to a further round of public consultation where we will be inviting "formal" representations. These will be submitted to an independent Planning Inspector along with the Area Action Plan for Examination in Public.

The timetable for this is as follows:

• January – February 2019 – publication of the Proposed Submission AAP (Regulation 19)
• March 2019 - Submission to the Secretary of State
• December 2019 - Adoption.

Full details about our timetable for preparing Local Plan documents is available on our website at www.hastings.gov.uk/planning/policy/emergingpolicy_guidance/localdevelopmentscheme/