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The charity making life better by water

Is the development appropriate?

We want to help you assess the appropriateness of waterside development close to our network. Due to the multi-functional nature of the waterways, there are a wide range of planning matters relevant to them.

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Matters can arise on any scale of development from a householder proposal to a major development requiring an environmental statement.

The Town and Country Planning Association worked with our predecessor organisation to produce a Planning Advice Note: Inland Waterways. This contained a development management checklist which has been updated to help local authorities assess the appropriateness and potential impacts of new development upon the waterway infrastructure, facilities and environs. It is relevant to anyone proposing, assessing or commenting on applications for waterside developments adjacent to our network.

To complement the checklist we have produced a series of case studies.

Our view of the connection between advice in the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) and Waterways will be available soon.

Our vision is that 'living waterways, transform places and enrich lives, so we're really interested in proposals for new places and spaces around the waterways. Take a look at the separate section we've got on creating successful waterside places where our urban design team demonstrate how successful waterside neighbourhoods can be achieved.

The Town and Country Planning Association have undertaken a report as part of their 'Developers and Wellbeing' project, which sets out key messages as to how collective action between developers, local authorities and wider stakeholders (which would include the Trust) can help lead to the development of new sustainable, high quality, healthy places.

The tools highlighted here are not a substitute for consultation with us as they're only designed to help with identifying issues and potential design approaches.

Last Edited: 15 August 2018

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