Public Realm Guidance

Adopted Supplementary Planning Documents (date of adoption 6th September 2011) :

Westminster Way Public Realm Strategy and Trees in the Public Realm

The Council has adopted two related Supplementary Planning Documents (SPDs) on:

• Westminster Way - Public Realm Strategy Design Practice and Principles
• Trees and the Public Realm - A Tree Strategy for Westminster

These strategies address the challenges we face daily in managing the city's public realm.  The Tree Strategy develops in detail the planting principles for different areas of the city at a finer grain than Chapter 10: 'Green spaces, squares and trees' in the Westminster Way Strategy.

Westminster Way takes on board the methodology for assessing pedestrian footway capacity in the Mayor of London's guidance called 'Pedestrian Comfort Guidance for London'.

We published drafts of the Westminster Way and Trees and the Public Realm SPDs for public consultation pursuant to Regulation 17 of the Town and Country Planning (Local Development) (England) Regulations 2004 as amended, in order to seek the views of interested parties on the content of the draft SPDs.  The consultation period ran for six weeks from noon on the 17th January 2011 until noon on 28th February 2011.  The consultation statement for formal bodies is available here:

• Consultation Statement (Matrix) 2011
• SPD Matters (as required by Regulation 16) September 2011
• Press Notice January 2011

In addition, all councillors and all contacts with e-mail addresses on the Council's Local Development Framework (LDF) database were notified and the consultation was announced in the local press.  All representations received were scheduled in two appendices to the Cabinet Member Report (see link below).

The Appendices to the Cabinet Member Report (Appendix 1 for Westminster Way and Appendix 2 for Trees and the Public Realm) are the statements required by Regulation 18 (4)(b) of the above Regulations and set out all representations made and where change was needed, the action proposed for the revised edition of the SPD.

The Cabinet Member report, with the schedules that comprise the statement, the decision of the Cabinet Member and the adoption statement required by Regulation 16 are available as links below:

• Cabinet Member Report (with Appendices) August 2011
• Decision of the Cabinet Member September 2011
• Adoption Statement September 2011

To request a copy of the adopted Westminster Way SPD and/or Trees and the Public Realm SPD or to find out more about them please contact us.