Non-Designated Heritage Asset Supplementary Planning Document consultation (phase 2)

Background

We are passionate about our heritage in County Durham and this draft SPD provides detailed guidance on NDHAs, which are buildings, monuments, sites, places, areas or landscapes that have a degree of significance meriting consideration in planning decisions, because of their heritage interest, but which do not meet the criteria for designated heritage assets. It supports a range of policies in the County Durham Plan (CDP) which provides a framework for new planning developments and helps to assess planning applications.

We initially consulted for a six week period from 3 June to 14 July this year (2024) and the document has been amended from this feedback.

What the SPD includes

The SPD covers:

• the procedure for identifying NDHAs
• assessing the impact of development on them
• identification criteria
• the selection and ratification process
• access to information
• the process for nominations and deletions
• limitations to identification

Key proposed changes

You were generally supportive of the principle of the SPD, but some changes were asked for. It was suggested that the SPD could be tightened up in some areas, such as clarifying how the process works alongside Neighbourhood Plans (some of which identify local heritage assets), explaining that detail is required for the scoring process, including more information about landscape assets and process matters, and recognising specific heritage assets.

The key changes made to the SPD following the consultation are:

• clarification has been added to confirm that the SPD will not be applied retrospectively to previously identified assets, specifically those within Neighbourhood Plans - the SPD will not undo previous community work in identifying NDHA
• additional detail has been added giving examples of assets which may fall under each asset type
• additional clarity has been added around the scoring criteria especially the threshold for assets being identified as NDHA and when they may be considered for the local list
• clarification has been added around the legislative and policy context of archaeology and the lower threshold for being identified as NDHA has been explained in greater detail

Read the amended Non-designated Heritage Asset SPD.

Have your say

What happens next

Responses to the consultation will be considered in drafting a final version of the SPD. Once approved, the SPD will be adopted and will be used to provide guidance to developers and to assess planning applications.