Candidate Site Update
The Council invited landowners, developers and the public to put forward ‘candidate sites’ to be considered for development, redevelopment or protection in the Blaenau Gwent Replacement Local Development Plan (LDP) for a 10 week period from 15th November 2018 until 24th January 2019. A total of 107 candidate sites were submitted for a range of uses, including residential, employment, leisure and tourism and renewable energy. Following this call we accepted 7 more sites which are contained in the addendum, bringing the total number of candidate sites received during the first call to 114.
In December 2020, the Council undertook a second call for candidate sites. However, due to lockdown restrictions associated with the Covid-19 pandemic, this stage was postponed on 20th December 2020. The Council was able to recommence the second call from Tuesday 30th March 2021 to Tuesday 18th May 2021. A total of 19 sites were submitted during the second call for sites for a range of uses including residential, settlement boundary changes, transport and renewable energy. These sites are included in the second addendum of the candidate site register. In accordance with the regulations, the sites have been published in the Candidate Sites Register.
Findings of Assessments Undertaken of the Submitted Candidate Sites
The Council have undertaken robust assessments of the first tranche of sites which have involved internal assessments with the Council’s green and built infrastructure teams and environmental health. We are currently in the process of assessing the 19 sites submitted in the second call.
To view summary results of the internal assessment work undertaken for each site, a Findings of the Candidate Site Assessments document has been prepared and can be downloaded here.
A Viability Guidance Note was prepared to provide guidance in relation to viability assessments for candidate site submissions.