Revised Pimlico Neighbourhood Plan 2021
Please note, the plan here is a draft, not the referendum version of the plan.
The Forum Steering Group has submitted the revised draft of the Neighbourhood Plan to Westminster City Council on 26 May 2021 (browse or download the PDF here). This means that we have started the home run to get our Neighbourhood Plan completed by early 2022. The Plan aims to deliver the Vision for Pimlico agreed in 2017.
The Forum has involved and consulted residents and businesses over the last four years and worked with numerous Residents Associations to develop and refine the policies in the Plan. We consulted on the first full draft of the Plan in July – October 2019 and the revised draft responds to the comments we received. This is a submission in accordance with the requirements of the Localism Act (2011) and Regulation 15 of the Neighbourhood Planning Regulations 2012 (as amended).
The Forum doesn’t have complete freedom in developing the Plan, in particular the Plan has to be in “general conformity” with:
- National Planning Policy
- Westminster’s City Plan 2019-2040 and
- London Plan 2021.
And some things which used to require planning permission, for example changing use of an office to a restaurant, no longer do so due to Government’s recent changes to “Use Classes” and “Permitted Development”. This means we have had to reconfigure some policies in our draft Plan to deal with these changes and still deliver our Vision.
Because the vast majority of our area lies within four Conservation Areas (Pimlico, Lillington and Longmoore, Dolphin Square and Peabody Avenue) of remarkably consistent style, development in our area should be relatively limited in scale and scope.
The main themes of the Plan are:
- Supporting the commercial areas so that they can be vibrant and best meet the shopping and hospitality needs of our area in a way that respects the amenity of the residential neighbours;
- Ensuring that any new development respects the conservation areas, their townscape and that there is clarity about allowed alterations to historic houses and other premises in the Pimlico Conservation Area. We also want to ensure that any major developments are rigorously challenged early in the planning application process.
- Pimlico is not a suitable area for tall buildings and there are clear limits on the height of new development suited to the surrounding townscape;
- Housing (including conversions and deconversions) to meet modern space standards and be of the right sizes to help growing families stay in Pimlico and equally families to downsize to suitable properties within our area; aiming to meet the needs of families;
- The Public Open Spaces and Local Green Spaces to be protected with designated green spaces having very strong protections from development;
- Public realm to be protected and enhanced; and
- Any developments of larger sites to provide public realm, with any redevelopment of the Queen Mother Sports Centre to provide a sports facility and swimming pool of at least comparable scale.
Next steps
According to the regulation on Neighbourhood Plans, we expect Westminster to begin its formal consultation on our Plan by the end of June. The likely timetable from then is:
- Mid August: Consultation ends
- Late August: Independent Examiner appointed
- Around end 2021: Examination ends
- Feb/March 2022: Referendum of residents in the Neighbourhood Area.
We’d be delighted to come and talk further to Residents Associations about the Plan and its policies: email us!
Relevant documents: