Deposit Plan

7 Strategic and Spatial Choices Comment

The Strategy Comment

7.1This policy sets out the housing and employment growth the 2RLDP seeks to deliver by the end of the plan period, as set out in the Development Strategy.

7.2The Strategy reflects the County Borough’s position within the National Growth Area as identified by Future Wales. The level of development proposed is projected to increase both the overall population and the working-age population, helping to sustain economic growth and attract investment. The plan also promotes sustainable growth in key sectors such as retail, leisure, and tourism, helping to strengthen the local economy and support wider regional growth aspirations.

Settlement Hierarchy Comment

7.3The 2RLDP defines a hierarchy of settlements which aligns with the Strategy, and which takes account of sustainability, location and suitability to accommodate growth.

7.4The hierarchy has been informed by an assessment of connectivity, and the availability of employment and other services and facilities as detailed in evidence base paper EB2: Sustainable Settlements Analysis.

7.5The analysis sets out the methodology used to assess the sustainability of each settlement considering connectivity and accessibility, and the availability of employment and other services and facilities. It recognises that some settlements have a close geographical and functional relationship and these have been clustered together. The settlement hierarchy is defined as follows:

• Tier 1 Settlements - exhibit the highest level of services, facilities and employment opportunities and have the greatest level of sustainable transport. These comprise Principal Town Centres and Local Centres as defined within Policy SP11.
• Tier 2 Settlements - a moderate level of services and facilities and/or significant employment opportunities and which are accessible by sustainable transport.
• Tier 3 Settlements - a lower level of services and facilities and less well located in terms of accessibility to the higher-level settlements and rail and bus stations.
• Tier 4 Settlements - a low level of services and facilities and are not sustainably located in terms of accessibility to the higher-level settlements and rail and bus stations. These settlements are only suitable for accommodating small-scale infill and logical rounding-off development.
• Tier 5 Settlements - all other settlements located outside of defined settlement boundaries.

7.6To promote sustainable and resilient communities, Policy SP2 seeks to focus growth to the Tier 1 and Tier 2 Settlements in the first instance, and then Tier 3 Settlements, where development is well located for employment, services and facilities and accessible by sustainable transport, minimising the need for travel, reducing reliance on the private car, and increasing walking, cycling and use of public transport.

7.7Tier 4 and Tier 5 Settlements can only accommodate small-scale infill and logical rounding-off development where it accords with the role and function of the settlement.

Well-being Comment

7.8Planning decisions directly influence health outcomes, social cohesion, and quality of life. Poorly located or designed development can exacerbate health inequalities, increase car dependency, and limit access to essential services. By contrast, well-planned development can create inclusive, resilient communities that support active lifestyles and reduce long-term social and economic costs.

7.9This policy aligns with statutory duties under the WBFG Act, which requires public bodies to act in ways that meet present needs without compromising future generations. It also reflects national planning priorities set out in PPW and Future Wales, which put placemaking and well-being at the heart of sustainable development. These frameworks emphasize integrating housing, transport, green infrastructure, and social facilities to create connected, healthy places.

7.10Evidence shows that proximity to green spaces, active travel routes, and community facilities improves physical and mental health, reduces inequalities, and fosters social interaction. Land-use planning is therefore a critical tool for addressing health determinants and promoting equality. By embedding principles such as accessibility, inclusivity, and integration of green infrastructure, the policy ensures development contributes positively to community well-being.

Climate-ready Caerphilly Comment

7.11Caerphilly County Borough faces growing climate pressures, with Wales already experiencing wetter winters, hotter and drier summers, and more frequent extreme weather events, trends that are projected to intensify in the coming decades. These changes pose direct risks to homes, infrastructure, public health, and natural systems across the South Wales Valleys, making climate resilience an essential component of sustainable placemaking.

7.12A climate‑ready Caerphilly must, therefore, integrate proactive adaptation into all aspects of planning, ensuring that development reduces vulnerability to flooding, heat, drought, and ecological decline while strengthening the County Borough’s long‑term social, economic, environmental and cultural resilience. National guidance underscores the need for place‑based adaptation, emphasising nature‑based solutions, resilient infrastructure, and community‑level preparedness as foundational to safeguarding well‑being for future generations. Building on this direction, the 2RLDP sets out a strategy that enables Caerphilly to anticipate climate impacts, respond effectively, and harness opportunities for a greener, healthier and more resilient borough.

7.13Climate change is a global issue with legal requirements for planning authorities to address mitigation and adaptation, supported by national legislation and carbon reduction targets to achieve net zero by 2050.

7.14The 2RLDP responds by embedding climate change considerations throughout its policies, promoting low‑carbon, energy‑efficient development that is resilient to climate impacts. This approach aligns with the Council’s declaration of a Climate Emergency and commitment to becoming a net zero authority by 2030, ensuring climate action is a core consideration across all development in the County Borough.

Nature-based Approach Comment

7.15In 2021, the Welsh Government declared a nature emergency, recognising the significant decline of biodiversity and ecosystem resilience in Wales. Under Section 6 of the Environment (Wales) Act (2016) the Council has a duty to maintain and enhance biodiversity. Therefore, the 2RLDP recognises the importance of enhancing biodiversity and improving ecosystem resilience throughout, taking a nature-based approach to development which avoids causing harm in the first instance, whilst seeking to enhance and connect existing features of importance.

7.16The step-wise approach will be applied to all relevant development proposals in line with national planning policy. Development proposals will be assessed based on their location, scale and potential impact, and mitigation requirements will be proportionate to the level of proposed development. Where mitigation or compensation measures are required but not possible, planning permission is likely to be refused.

7.17Existing features of value must be retained on site wherever possible. Opportunities to enhance or create new ecological assets should be pursued through best practice guidance with particular emphasis on the DECCA framework set out within PPW. Development proposals should consider the diversity of each ecosystem, their extent, their condition, their connections and their adaptability when seeking to improve ecosystem resilience. This approach is essential for the movement, dispersal, long-term viability and survival of protected and priority species.

7.18Developers must take a nature-based approach from the outset when considering the design of all major developments and consult the Councils Green and Blue Infrastructure Assessment (GIA) and Nature Network Maps. All major developments will be expected to be designed in accordance with placemaking principles and integrate new and existing natural features wherever possible. Developments should be designed to take into account extreme weather events as a result of climate change. Developments that include residential dwellings should be set back from watercourses to allow for extreme rainfall and flood events.

7.19The on-going maintenance and management of new natural features will be considered as part of the planning process as it is an essential consideration of the Councils Section 6 duty. Where a management plan is required, it should clearly set out both the immediate and long‑term management measures for the site, together with arrangements for future monitoring and the funding mechanisms identified to deliver the plan’s objectives. The management plan should also specify the proposed timescales for achieving a net benefit for biodiversity, ensuring this is secured at the earliest practicable opportunity that delivers a sustainable future for the site area.

Placemaking Comment

7.20Placemaking in Wales provides the overarching vision for creating sustainable, healthy and distinctive places, and development management policies act as the practical tools to deliver that vision. Planning has a vital role in shaping Caerphilly County Borough as a place, ensuring that new development supports strong, cohesive communities and creates connected, distinctive, healthy and sustainable environments where people can live, work and thrive for generations to come.

7.21Well-designed, people-focused places support sustainability, health and well-being and can foster local pride, tourism and economic growth. Poor design, by contrast, often undermines communities and can lead to social, economic and environmental decline. Delivering good design strengthens the Council’s wider priorities and statutory duties, from protecting and enhancing the unique character of our towns, villages and valleys, to encouraging new investment, tackling health inequalities, improving community safety and addressing issues such as road safety and social exclusion. At a smaller but equally important scale, good design also means practical solutions to ensure that places function well day to day.

7.22The WBFG Act and PPW12 require sustainable development through strategic placemaking. The 2RLDP places placemaking at the heart of its vision and policies recognising that good design goes beyond appearance to improve social, economic, environmental and cultural well-being.

7.23The 2RLDP promotes well-designed, connected and functional places that support how people live, work and interact with their surroundings. Sustainable placemaking underpins all 2RLDP policies and aligns with Future Wales by encouraging compact, walkable neighbourhoods, mixed uses, public transport and green infrastructure.

7.24The Council has signed up to the Wales Placemaking Charter that outlines the following six placemaking principles that cover the range of considerations that contribute to establishing and maintaining good places:

• people and community,
• movement,
• public realm,
• location,
• mix of uses, and
• identity.

7.25Guided by these principles, this policy aims to ensure high-quality, well-integrated development that enhances settlements, countryside and community well-being.

7.26PPW and Future Wales place placemaking at the heart of the planning system in Wales. They require development plans to establish a clear design vision and set expectations for creating sustainable, distinctive and well-connected places. Poor or mediocre design should be refused, particularly where it fails to reflect local policy, adopted Supplementary Planning Guidance (SPG) or national guidance such as the Placemaking Charter.

7.27National policy in Wales is informed by research and independent review which consistently highlights the link between high-quality design, health, well-being and economic growth. The emphasis is on creating places that are resilient to climate change, inclusive for all and capable of adapting to future needs.

7.28The 2RLDP provides the mechanism to embed good design locally. Policy PM1 (Creating Well Designed Places), supported by existing and future SPG, sets out a clear and practical framework for securing high quality, well-designed and sustainable development in Caerphilly County Borough.

7.29Engagement with communities and stakeholders has consistently highlighted the importance of protecting and enhancing local character, addressing day-to-day design issues and ensuring that development contributes positively to place. The Council will continue to use SPG, masterplans and conservation area appraisals to provide detailed guidance.

7.30The local design principles in Policy PM1 draw on the Placemaking Charter but have been adapted to reflect the context of Caerphilly’s towns, villages and valley landscapes. This ensures that national objectives are translated into locally distinctive, practical and deliverable outcomes.

7.31The Council plays a key role in aligning local and national policy, advising developers on highway design and sustainable drainage systems and ensuring new development supports placemaking and encourages walking, cycling, wheeling and public transport use.

7.32Placemaking encompasses how buildings, spaces and landscapes are designed and used and how people experience them. The design of development directly affects health, well-being, safety, access, travel choices, inclusion and overall quality of life. Good design also influences the environmental impact of development, including its location, method of construction, integration with its surroundings and its ability to address both immediate and future challenges of the climate emergency.

7.33While design is often associated with appearance, it is also fundamental to delivering sustainability, energy efficiency and climate change objectives. New development provides an opportunity to embed good design that supports resilience, decarbonisation and active travel.

7.34New development should deliver a high standard of amenity for existing and future residents. The quality of housing is a critical factor in health outcomes, with size, layout and usability central to this. National space standards are not currently mandatory in Wales, but the Council will keep their potential application under review in line with Welsh Government guidance and evidence of local need and viability.

7.35To create well-designed places, development must sit comfortably within its local and wider context, responding positively to settlement form, valley landscapes and local materials. Too often proposals lack proper site and contextual analysis, resulting in generic schemes that ignore local distinctiveness, miss opportunities for connections and harm natural features and habitats. Policy PM1 directly addresses this issue, supported by the Placemaking Charter, Manual for Streets and SPG.

7.36The design process works best when applicants engage early with the Planning Authority, statutory consultees and communities. Pre-application discussions allow time to improve proposals and typically result in better design outcomes, smoother decision-making and schemes that gain greater community support.

7.37The Council expects applicants to demonstrate that new development meets high standards of placemaking and design quality. This approach aligns with national guidance and supports the Council’s wider objectives.

7.38Applicants are strongly encouraged to make use of the Council’s pre-application advice service and to engage proactively with communities to test and refine their proposals.

7.39To secure consistent quality across the County Borough, all proposals must reflect relevant SPG, Conservation Area Appraisals and masterplans as well as national guidance such as TAN 12: Design.

7.40For major development, applicants are encouraged to enter into a Planning Performance Agreement (PPA). PPAs provide a clear framework of timescales, actions and resources for progressing large or complex applications and can cover all stages of the process, including pre-application engagement.

7.41This policy seeks to safeguard the environmental quality, health and well-being of communities, as well as protect the distinctive character of the countryside and the historic and natural environment. Development has the potential to generate adverse impacts such as air, noise, light, water pollution and contamination, which can individually or cumulatively harm human health, biodiversity, heritage assets and landscape character.

7.42National policy, including PPW and Future Wales, makes clear that sustainable placemaking depends on minimising pollution and maintaining high standards of environmental quality. Similarly, the WBFG Act places duties on public bodies to ensure that development decisions prevent long-term harms to health, communities and ecosystems.

7.43Air, noise and light pollution are recognised as key determinants of public health and amenity, with poor air quality and excessive noise contributing to respiratory and cardiovascular illness and inappropriate lighting disrupting biodiversity and dark skies. Water pollution and land contamination can have lasting impacts on river catchments, soil health and ecological networks, with remediation often costly and long-term.

7.44By requiring developers to demonstrate that unacceptable effects can be avoided or mitigated, this policy ensures that growth and regeneration do not compromise environmental standards or the quality of life of residents. It aligns with the precautionary principle and underpins other plan objectives relating to climate change, resilience, biodiversity net benefit and heritage protection.

7.45In exceptional circumstances where potential risks can be effectively mitigated, appropriate conditions, planning obligations or environmental controls may be applied. Where mitigation cannot be secured, permission will be refused to protect public health, amenity and the wider environment.

7.46This policy establishes the broad locational framework for development, ensuring that proposals come forward in sustainable, appropriate locations and do not undermine the overall spatial strategy of the 2RLDP. Its purpose is threefold: to safeguard opportunities for the comprehensive and co-ordinated redevelopment of allocated sites; to protect the distinctive role and function of individual settlements; and to restrict development in the countryside to those uses that require such a location.

7.47Part A ensures that piecemeal or poorly planned proposals do not prejudice wider regeneration or compromise the deliverability of allocated land uses. Comprehensive redevelopment is often critical to achieving infrastructure provision, coherent layouts and high-quality placemaking and must not be undermined by isolated or premature development.

7.48Part B recognises that each settlement within the County Borough has a defined role and function, as set out in the settlement hierarchy. Development must reinforce, not contradict, this hierarchy. Proposals that would undermine the scale, character or service role of settlements will therefore not be permitted.

7.49Part C reflects national planning policy, which seeks to strictly control development in the open countryside in order to protect its character, landscape, biodiversity and amenity. Exceptions are limited to those forms of development that are operationally dependent on a rural location, contribute to the rural economy or support public infrastructure and environmental enhancement. This includes essential activities such as agriculture & forestry, rural enterprise, farm diversification, recreation & tourism uses that are appropriate to a countryside setting, development associated with utilities and development associated with the reclamation of derelict land.

7.50Together, these provisions ensure that development is directed to the right places, preventing urban sprawl, safeguarding the countryside and promoting sustainable growth consistent with the settlement strategy of the 2RLDP.

Planning Obligations and Contributions Comment

7.51Development has the potential to increase pressure on existing community infrastructure and facilities such as transport networks, schools, lifelong learning facilities, open space and other facilities. Access to a range of good quality infrastructure and services is essential for the environmental, social, economic and cultural sustainability of the County Borough.

7.52Where appropriate, the Council will identify and secure the provision of adequate infrastructure and services through the use of planning obligations and the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL).

7.53In line with national guidance the Council will continue to negotiate obligations where these are necessary, directly related to the proposed development, fairly and reasonably related in scale and kind to the proposed development.

7.54The obligations listed in this policy are not listed in order of priority. Where it is necessary to prioritise planning obligations, the Council will do so on a site-by-site basis, having regard to the specifics of the development at that time and in line with national guidance.

7.55In the case of previously used land, the Council will take into consideration abnormal costs associated with the redevelopment of a site when negotiating the level of planning obligation to be sought. Where a developer considers that the level of obligation sought may affect the viability of a development proposal to an unacceptable degree the Council will require the developer to provide sufficient evidence to support this position as part of the planning obligation negotiation process.

7.56Infrastructure will be secured either through conditions attached to planning permissions; planning obligations contained within a legal agreement under Section 106 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 (as amended); or through levy receipts under the Community Infrastructure Levy Regulations (CIL) 2010 (as amended).

7.57In order to ensure that planning obligations and CIL can operate in a complementary way, CIL will provide funding for infrastructure to support the development of the area, rather than to make an individual planning application acceptable in planning terms.

7.58The Council’s Regulation 123 List sets out the infrastructure that could be delivered through CIL.