East Suffolk Council
New planning guidance for healthy environments
A new planning document has been adopted in East Suffolk to help guide the delivery of healthier built environments.
The Healthy Environments Supplementary Planning Document (SPD) provides guidance on delivering more inclusive and higher quality living environments in East Suffolk, to improve the health and wellbeing of people of all ages, abilities, and incomes.
The SPD provides guidance on a range of topics including the provision of green open space, play provision, trees and landscaping, active travel infrastructure, healthy key buildings such as homes, schools and workplaces, dementia-friendly design, community facilities and more.
Ben Woolnough, Head of Planning and Coastal Management at East Suffolk said: “This document provides planning and design guidance to support the delivery of places which improve health and wellbeing outcomes for people living in East Suffolk. This includes supporting the provision of active travel infrastructure, food growing areas, more accessible and community spaces, as well as open and play spaces and much more. The document will now be a material consideration when determining planning applications in future.”
The SPD was subject to public consultation during its preparation and the comments received helped to inform the scope and content of the final document. The Consultation Statement, which has been published alongside the SPD, sets out the Council’s response to the comments received and the changes that were made to the SPD in response to comments.