Deposit Plan

4 Vision and Objectives Comment

4.1The 2RLDP will address the key land use issues facing the County Borough and its communities. The Pre-Deposit Plan, which was subject to public consultation during early 2025, previously identified a series of 36 national, regional, environmental, economic, social and cultural issues for consideration; 15 aims and 25 objectives, as well as the overarching vision.

4.2These have since been developed and refined to reflect regional and local strategies and stakeholder engagement.

Issues Comment

4.3The following key issues have been identified, and these will, in turn, influence the vision for the plan:

4.4Climate change – a ‘climate emergency’ has been declared both by the Senedd and the Council. Consequently, the 2RLDP must prioritise climate change adaptation and mitigation and ensure that proposals brought forward are resilient to its impact.

4.5Housing – the 2RLDP must make provision for a level of housing development sufficient to ensure the continuation of an economically sustainable population for the duration of the plan period and beyond. This will include housing of a variety of types and tenures, including affordable housing and housing suitable for later living, in sustainable locations.

4.6Mental and physical health and well-being – the County Borough continues to exhibit a relatively high level of long-term illness, and significant health inequalities continue to exist. The 2RLDP should seek to give effect, insofar as it is able, to measures which contribute to addressing this, in land-use terms, and should support public sector and community-focused organisations in terms of fulfilling their priorities.

4.7Placemaking – the County Borough contains a variety of settlement types and intervening spaces and landscapes, all of which contribute to the sustainability of the local area and the wider region of which it is part. The 2RLDP must allow for the development of adaptable, accessible and interconnected communities, with each offering an appropriate and sustainably located range of facilities and services, accompanied by the necessary supporting infrastructure.

4.8Culture and heritage – the County Borough has a variety of cultural and historic assets, upon which the planning system has a significant degree of influence. The adaptive reuse of historic assets should be encouraged, where appropriate. Where relevant, proposals should be considered within the context of the historic environment and its setting, and the need to foster and promote the development and use of the Welsh language.

4.9Active and sustainable travel – within the context of the South East Wales Metro initiative, the notion of promoting sustainable forms of interconnectivity between, and within, settlements will be of primary importance in terms of creating socially cohesive, economically viable and environmentally responsible communities.

4.10Economic growth – although demonstrating some degree of diversity, the local economy of the County Borough is characterised by a geographically mobile workforce capable of taking advantage of opportunities elsewhere within the region – and a continued prevalence of manufacturing. The 2RLDP will seek to provide a sufficient range and quantum of employment land in order to meet local need, ensure that the County Borough’s town centres are able to optimise their ability to adapt to changing retail landscapes, and promote the integration of complementary, economically focused land uses where appropriate.

4.11Natural environment – the County Borough possesses a range of priority habitats, areas of high-quality landscape and other open spaces, and the need to ensure their continued protection and promote positive changes in terms of biodiversity and environmental quality is beyond question. This must be balanced however with the need to support the sustainable development of the built environment and associated infrastructure and through the continued safeguarding of aggregate resources and the winning and working of minerals, and to make positive changes regarding decarbonisation i.e. appropriately located renewable energy schemes.

Vision Comment

4.12The vision for the 2RLDP looks forward to the end of the plan period (2035) and envisions how the policies, site allocations and designations set out within the plan will contribute to a more positive society in social, environmental, economic and cultural terms. It establishes the overall direction that is further articulated in the more specific objectives that follow and forms the link between the spatial growth strategy and the strategic policies.

The Objectives Comment

4.13Each of the issues presented above has been translated into a number of specific objectives, which reflect the collective aspirations of the 2RLDP’s policies, site allocations and designations and which, together, are intended to realise the vision set out above. These objectives not only reflect national planning policy, but also the aspirations of the Council and key stakeholders.

4.14The objectives are listed, along with their relationship to the National Sustainable Placemaking Outcomes, the WBFG Act’s seven well-being goals, the Council’s well-being objectives and the 2RLDP policies.