Evidence base documents

Sustainable settlements study

The Pendle Sustainable Settlements Study (SSS) forms a key part of the evidence base for the Local Plan. It provides a detailed assessment of the rural settlements in Pendle and informs the settlement hierarchy as detailed in Core Strategy.

A settlement hierarchy seeks to arrange settlements within a given area in order of their importance. The range and number of services in a settlement is usually, but not always, proportionate to its size of population. These services do however, determine a settlement's sphere of influence and help to inform decisions about the scale and location of new development across the borough.

As a result, the Sustainable Settlements Study provides an important part of the evidence base used in the preparation of the Local Plan.

What's happening next?

The Sustainable Settlements Study was adopted in November 2008 and is available to view in the Documents to download section below.

The information collected for the study can only represent one point in time and it is acknowledged that service provision and/or accessibility may subsequently increase or decrease in time. Future audits will be undertaken as and when considered necessary as part of on-going policy making.

What have we done so far?

To produce the study an audit was undertaken of the key services and facilities available in each of the rural settlements. This information was then used to help determine which settlements are the key providers of services to a wider area and to help identify potential rural hubs.

In addition the potential capacity of each settlement to accommodate any new development was considered. The physical and social infrastructure together with any environmental constraints and the availability of sites was considered to show which settlements could potentially accommodate further growth and which have deficiencies in the provision of services and facilities that would constrain future growth.