Cockermouth Conservation Area Design Guide SPD   

The Cockermouth Conservation Area Design Guide Supplementary Planning Document (SPD) was adopted on the 5th March 2008. Any person wishing to challenge the decision to adopt this document must apply to the High Court for a judicail review of the decision before the 5th June 2008.

The purpose of the SPD is to provide those considering works that involve buildings, sites or the public realm within the Cockermouth Conservation Area with instructions on how to approach issues such as improvement, maintenance and repair. Its main objective is to enable conservation to play an active part in regeneration by ensuring that change is managed in a way that sustains and enhances the built environment without overly constraining development. Government regulations now require that all SPDs are accompanied by a Sustainability Appraisal which is used to assess how far the SPD contributes to the principles of sustainable development, i.e. social improvement, economic development and environmental protection.

The first part of the Sustainability Appraisal process, the scoping report, was sent out for consultation in July 2006. This was then amended, according to comments received, and an updated version was published in October 2006. This was then used to guide production of the SA which was sent out for consultation, along with the SPD in November 2006. All the documents relating to the SPD, including the final version of the Sustainability Appraisal, are available for download below. Paper copies are available on request.