1. Introduction

The Doncaster Unitary Development Plan (UDP) is the Borough's sole statutory land use plan. It supersedes the South Yorkshire Structure Plan, old style Development Plans, the six Local Plans, the Minerals Local Plan and the Interim Planning Policy Statements. It contains both the strategic policies (referred to as Part I Policies) and local planning or Part II policies necessary to guide and co-ordinate development up to the year 2001.

The Borough Council is required to produce a UDP under the Local Government Act 1985 (consolidated in the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 and amended in the Planning and Compensation Act 1991); the Doncaster Commencement Order came into force on 28th November 1989. The UDP has to be produced in accordance with various regulations and guidance issued by the Secretary of State for the Environment notably Planning Policy Guidance Note PPG 12 (Feb 1992): "Development Plans and Regional Planning Guidance" and the Strategic Guidance for South Yorkshire issued on 20th October 1989.

The UDP comprises two parts. Part I consists of the Borough Council's general policies for the development and other use of land, and has had regard to Strategic Planning Guidance, national policies and the resources likely to be available to implement the Plan. Part I is set out in Chapters 2 and 3 of this Written Statement.

Part II is in conformity with Part I and consists of:

1. A written statement of the Borough Council's Policies and Proposals for the development and other use of land including Policies which will form the basis for determining planning applications.
2. A reasoned justification for the Policies and Proposals in Parts I and II.
3. A Proposals Map showing the Part II Policies and Proposals on an Ordnance Survey base.

Chapters 4-14 of this Written Statement deal with topics such as Housing, Employment and Environment. Chapters 15-17 deal with geographical areas or sites which have a particularly complex inter-relationship of topic issues and which therefore also require an area based treatment. The detailed planning Policies and Proposals applicable to any site or area can however be readily determined from Part II Policies by their "S" Prefix. All Policies and Proposals are printed in upper case to distinguish them from their justification. Chapter 18 deals with the implementation, monitoring and review of the UDP. The various Appendices are cross-referenced within the relevant chapters and form part of the statutory UDP.

The Proposals Map in fact consists of 46 plans contained on 9 separate sheets. Doncaster is the largest of the Metropolitan Boroughs and to enable the Policies and Proposals to be presented at an appropriate scale the Borough has been split into 9 UDP Areas based on Ward and Parish boundaries and resembling the old Local Plan Areas.

• Area 1 (Doncaster Town Centre) is shown at 1:2,500 scale.
• the 4 predominantly urban areas are shown at 1:12,500 scale.
• the 4 predominantly rural areas are shown at 1:25,000 scale.
• there are in addition 2 inset plans for Mexborough and Thorne town centres at 1:2,500 and 35 inset plans at 1:12,500 for settlements within predominantly rural areas.

The UDP is primarily a land use plan although the social and economic context for the land use Policies and Proposals is taken into account. The Borough Council, in addition to its role as local planning authority, is responsible for many other areas of policy to which the UDP will have relevance and there will be many other agencies, public and private, which will be guided by the UDP.

Many of the Policies and Proposals contained in recent Local Plans and Interim Planning Policy Statements are rolled forward, sometimes with modifications, into the UDP. In the case of older Local Plans and old style Development Plans, however, many Proposals have been implemented and some Policies have become out of date. There is a need in any event to provide for development requirements up to 2001 and beyond and to take account of more recent changes in circumstances and national policies. The preparation of the UDP has provided an opportunity to look afresh at the whole Borough and to produce one comprehensive plan addressing both the Strategic and Local Planning Policies and Proposals necessary to implement the land use elements of the Borough Council's key objectives of economic regeneration, environmental improvement and reducing social inequality.

In the course of the preparation of the UDP the Borough Council has (and will continue to) placed great emphasis on public involvement in accordance with, but also in addition to, the statutory requirements by encouraging local people to contribute their views on what should be done. This process began with the commissioning and publishing (in December 1989) of the Public Attitude Survey, a detailed survey of Doncaster householders' attitudes on a wide range of issues central to the formulation of the UDP. The findings have contributed to the development of the Policies and Proposals contained in the Draft UDP. Key findings are included, as appropriate, within the Written Statement.

In April 1990 the Borough Council published the UDP Issues and Directions Report, a discussion document designed to open the debate about the development of Doncaster into the next Century. Copies were circulated to a wide range of consultees and the responses were taken into account in the preparation of the Policies and Proposals contained in the Public Consultation Draft UDP.

The Public Consultation Draft UDP was published in November 1992; the public consultation period ran from 23rd November to 26th February 1993. A wide ranging public consultation programme included direct consultation with over 150 local and national organisations; distribution of various publicity material including a free newspaper to households throughout the Borough; advertisements and articles in the local press; production of a UDP video; a town centre exhibition; a mobile exhibition which toured the Borough; and a number of local meetings / presentations. A full Report of Publicity was submitted to the Department of the Environment. Some 800 representations on the Draft Plan were received and all of these together with resulting proposed amendments were reported to Planning Committee in a series of UDP Representations Reports between October 1993 and March 1994. All the agreed amendments were included in the Deposit Draft of the Plan.

The Deposit Draft UDP was placed on Deposit from 20 June - 12 August 1994 during which approximately 1300 objections and 900 statements of support were formally lodged. These representations and consequential proposed changes to the UDP were reported to Planning Committee in March 1995; the changes were informally advertised in line with Government guidance in April/May 1995. Representations received in relation to these changes were reported to Committee in June 1995. Between August and December 1995 a number of further reports were taken to Committee mostly on single issue changes to the UDP; again these were advertised and any representations received were reported back to Committee.

A Public Local Inquiry (PLI) to consider objections to the UDP (including objections to proposed changes) was held between 13 June 1995 and 6 February 1996. The Inspector's Report on the PLI was received in February 1997. Reports to Planning Committee in June 1997 set out the responses to the Inspector's Report and proposed modifications to the UDP. These modifications were placed on Deposit in two batches in August/September 1997 and November/December 1997 during which 307 objections and 75 statements of support were formally lodged. These representations and proposed further modifications were reported to Committee in February 1998; the proposed further modifications were placed on deposit between February and April 1998 during which 2 objections and 2 statements of support were received. These representations were reported to Committee on 27 April 1998 with no further modifications proposed and it was resolved to proceed to adopt the UDP.

Following the necessary notifications and advertisements in accordance with the Regulations the UDP was Adopted on 21 July 1998.

The various documents referred to above, including committee reports and superseded plans can be inspected at the Planning and Design Services Directorate.

Doncaster's UDP will not provide an answer to every potential question about future land use in the Borough. It does however, provide the policy framework within which such decisions can be made. There will be a continuing need for Supplementary Planning Guidance and to establish the detailed way in which the overall policy objectives will be implemented in particular areas. The function of the UDP is to provide certainty where certainty is possible, but also to retain an appropriate degree of flexibility to meet changing circumstances, without the need for repeated reviews of the whole plan.