Policy ED 1 – Enabling Development criteria

Proposals involving enabling development relating to the re-use, restoration or refurbishment of significant places will only be permitted where it can be demonstrated by the applicant in the submission of a Statement of Justification to accompany an application for planning permission that all of the following criteria are met: a. the significant place to be subsidised by the proposed enabling development will bring significant long-term benefits according to its scale and location; b. the conservation of the significant place would otherwise be either operationally or financially unviable; c. the impact of the enabling development is precisely defined at the outset; d. the scale of the proposed enabling development does not exceed what is necessary to support the conservation of the significant place; e. sufficient subsidy is not available from any other source; f. the public benefit decisively outweighs the disbenefits of departing from other planning policies; g. it will not materially harm the heritage values of the significant place or its setting; h. it avoids detrimental fragmentation of the management of the significant place; i. it will secure the long term future of the significant place and, where applicable, its continued use for a sympathetic purpose; and j. it is necessary to resolve problems arising from the inherent needs of the heritage asset, rather than circumstances of the present owner, or the purchase price paid.