Addressing Climate Change

Proposed Approach

The UK government has set a target to become carbon neutral by 2050. National planning policy stipulates that the planning system should help the transition to a low carbon economy. The Local Plan needs to help reduce greenhouse gases, mitigate flood risk, minimise vulnerability and improve resilience, and support renewable and low carbon energy.

Mitigating climate change is one of the five challenges outlined in the Greater Manchester Five-Year Environment Plan . It sets out an aim for our city region to be carbon neutral by 2038 and meet carbon budgets that comply with international commitments.

The council’s Creating a Better Place regeneration strategy reflects Oldham’s commitment to climate change and seeks to ensure a greener borough by embedding sustainability, energy efficiency & low (zero) carbon. In June 2019, Oldham Council declared its ambition to be the UK's first Green New Deal Council. It subsequently declared a Climate Emergency in September 2019.

The council’s Oldham Green New Deal Strategy was adopted by the council in March 2020. The Strategy’s objective is to 'Future-proof the regeneration of the borough by establishing Oldham as an exemplar Green City on energy, carbon, water and green infrastructure'.

Through the Local Plan we will seek to address climate change through a positive approach on renewable and low carbon energy, flood risk, green infrastructure, design, air quality and transport infrastructure while assessing the location of development in relation to public transport and accessibility amongst other factors as part of site allocations. We will also support growth of the green technologies sector.

Below we set out our policies on energy, flood risk and water supply. Other plan policies linking to climate change can be found throughout the plan.

• Policy CC1 - Sustainable Construction, Energy Efficiency and Retrofitting:
  • Policy CC1 focuses on sustainable construction, energy efficiency, and retrofitting with the aim of mitigating climate change effects and achieving the council's carbon neutrality goal by 2030.
• Policy CC2 - Renewable and Low Carbon Energy:
  • Policy CC2 outlines the council's stance on renewable and low-carbon energy development, including wind energy, and sets criteria for support. Proposals for such developments will be supported, where adverse impacts are satisfactorily addressed, considering factors such as local amenity, highway safety, biodiversity, Green Belt, loss of open space, flood risk, land stability, public rights of way, telecommunications, landscape characteristics, historic environment, mineral safeguarding areas, and cumulative effects with other energy developments.
• Policy CC3 - Managing Flood Risk
  • Policy CC3 establishes guidelines for managing flood risk in development proposals, aligning with national planning policy and guidance. A sequential approach to assessing current and future flood risk is applied, with the functional floodplain (Flood Zone 3b) identified for water storage and Green Infrastructure benefits.
• Policy CC4 - Sustainable Drainage - Foul & Surface Water
  • Policy CC4 outlines requirements for sustainable drainage management of foul and surface water in development applications.
• Policy CC5 - Water Efficiency:
  • Policy CC5 focuses on water efficiency requirements for new developments. For residential developments, the policy mandates compliance with the optional requirement set through Building Regulations Requirement G2: Water Efficiency or any future updates.
• Policy CC6 - Groundwater Source Protection Zones
  • Policy CC6 addresses groundwater source protection zones and outlines requirements for development proposals to consider and mitigate potential impacts on water quality.

To read the policies in full, please download the chapter extract which is available in the "downloads" section of this project page.

If, once you have read the policies and supporting information, you wish to comment on the proposed policies, then please use the survey below, to do so.