5.130 The provision of new employment space is critical to the delivery of employment and jobs in the Borough. Policy SP3 sets out the strategic approach to the delivery of employment and identifies the strategic sites which are allocated for employment purposes. Other specific sites for employment development are identified with site policies in this Plan.

5.131 There are also other existing employment sites including those identified in the Employment Land Review 2016, which have not been specifically allocated, but which may provide potential for redevelopment, enhancement and reconfiguration. There may also be opportunities for employment development which have not been specifically identified and are not located in existing established employment locations.

5.132 It is important that new employment development occurs in locations which provide suitable access to the local road network, and can also be accessed by a range of means of transport. The following policy seeks to support such proposals, provided they are in sustainable locations, create additional employment and do not have any other adverse impacts. It is essential that appropriate provision is made to access the site and that sufficient car parking is provided.

5.133 The NPPF makes it clear that planning policies should support economic growth in rural areas and the Council’s Rural Economic Assessment 2014 concluded that the current policy approach has been successful in delivering substantial rural employment opportunities. The study indicated that it could be possible to allocate additional sites but that a continuation of the current flexible policy approach that enables the market to determine the optimum location of additional employment space on an ad hoc basis regulated by planning generic policies. Hence, a suite of criteria based policies for new employment space provision, retention of employment space and extension of employment premises, provides a flexible and responsive approach to the delivery of appropriately-scaled employment opportunities in the rural areas.

5.134 New employment development should be provided at a scale that is appropriate to the existing settlement, without detriment to its amenity, character or setting. All new development should be of good design as required by Policy SP6.

5.135 It is important that the rural road network that supports new development is suitable for the scale and type of vehicle movements associated with new employment proposals. For example, significant numbers of HGV movements are unlikely to be appropriate along quiet rural lanes or in historic environments. Similarly, developments that would generate large amounts of traffic per se may be better suited to more sustainable locations where alternative means of transport may be more readily available. 

5.136 The Council acknowledges that the changes that have been made to permitted development rights have meant that some buildings can be converted from a commercial use without the need for planning permission. Nevertheless there is still a requirement to retain, where possible, existing employment generating uses and to maintain the existing policy approach that has been in place for some time.  

5.137 The NPPF stresses the importance of identifying a range of sites to facilitate a broad range of economic development, including mixed use development. The council believes it is necessary to make specific policy provision for the retention of the existing stock of employment premises in the town to complement the strategy of identifying areas for employment development.

5.138 With Ashford already home to approximately 53,700 jobs (BRES 2014), an important aspect of achieving the growth in jobs within the town will be the facilitation of growth in existing companies alongside new investment. The safeguarding of existing employment sites (B1-B8) within the urban area is important to retain a good supply and range of units in size, type and cost to enable local companies to continue to prosper. Smaller sites and units continue to be the most vulnerable premises to competition from higher value land uses that do not create employment for the area.

5.139 The Employment Land Review 2016 includes an assessment of existing employment estates in the Borough.

5.140 In a few exceptional circumstances, the continuation of an employment use on a site may ne inappropriate by virtue of, for example, an impact on the residential amenity of neighbouring occupiers, or an unsafe vehicular access. However, this judgement should be based upon the impact of a range of potential employment generating uses on the site and not solely that of the previous or most recent operations at the site.  

5.141 Otherwise, for proposals involving the loss of employment floorspace, either an equivalent amount of floorspace must be provided at a suitable site elsewhere in the Ashford urban area, or it will be necessary for developers to provide robust evidence that the premises have been markets unsuccessfully for a substantial period of time on reasonable terms. Whilst each proposal will need to be treated on its own merits with the context of the prevailing market conditions, as a guide, appropriate marketing for less than one year is unlikely to be considered sufficient. Evidence should be provided that the terms compare with other similar premises and locations being let or sold for employment uses within the local area. The extent of the marketing carried out will be an important factor in the weight given to the evidence.

5.142 In addition to marketing the site, developers will need to have carried out a viability assessment of the redevelopment potential of the site for any other types of suitable employment generating uses. These uses might include, for example, trade counter uses, motor dealerships, education and training facilities, or small scale leisure facilities not suitable for town centre locations. The viability assessment should consider not only the redevelopment of the site in the current market conditions, but also redevelopment of the site within the timescale of this Plan.

5.143 Where mixed use redevelopment proposals involving an element of residential development are proposed on an existing employment site, these will only be acceptable if they retain at least the equivalent amount of employment floorspace within the redevelopment scheme as was available on the existing site or otherwise meet one of the criteria in Policy EMP2 below.

Loss or Redevelopment of employment sites and premises in the rural area

5.144 Whilst there is a considerable supply of employment space in the rural areas, much of this tends to be in relatively remote locations and opportunities in and around the villages are generally limited. Whilst it is important to retain existing employment sites, a balance may need to be struck between the viability of the existing employment space and the continuing need for employment in the local area.

5.145 It is desirable to enable jobs to be provided locally to cater for the needs of residents in the Borough's rural areas and to avoid unsustainable patterns of commuting. Hence, in general, proposals for the loss of existing employment sites in or adjoining the more sustainable rural settlements will not be supported. However, the Council recognises that there may be two circumstances where a different approach can be justified.

5.146 As a main objective of the Council's policy is to retain local job opportunities, the replacement of an employment use with new employment space elsewhere that is of the same size or larger may be an acceptable mitigation to the loss of an employment site. However, in order to retain the link between the employment use and local residents, it is likely that only employment uses that are relocated within or adjacent to their existing rural settlement or the nearest rural service centre will be acceptable and only if it can be demonstrated that development of the selected site will not have a detrimental impact on any existing uses, the quality of the landscape or the character of the area. This will also help to deliver a more sustainable form of development by limiting the need to travel longer distances to employment locations.

5.147 When considering an application for the loss of an employment site, an assessment will need to be made as to the viability of the existing use or an alternative employment use. In order to demonstrate that a site is no longer viable for an employment use, the application must be supported by robust evidence that the premises have been marketed unsuccessfully for both the existing use and any alternative suitable employment use for a period of at least 6 months on terms that should compare with other similar premises and locations being sold or let for employment purposes. The extent of any marketing carried out and the prevailing market conditions will also be material considerations in the Council's assessment of viability evidence.

Extensions to Employment Premises in the Rural Area

5.148 The NPPF indicates that Plans should support the sustainable growth and expansion of all types of business and enterprise in rural areas and in line with the conclusions of the Rural Economic Assessment 2014, the Council will, in principle, encourage and support proposals for extensions to existing employment sites within or adjacent to Tenterden and other rural settlements. Proposals for extensions to existing employment premises in the countryside will particularly need to demonstrate that they would not have a detrimental impact on the character of the landscape. In both cases, extensions to existing employment sites should demonstrate that they will have no individual and cumulative impact on the rural environment, either visually or in terms of traffic and overall activity levels that will be generated.

5.149 In exceptional cases, where a business is located as part of a well-established collection of industrial or business premises, and is accommodated in a converted building whose character would be unacceptably affected by a physical extension, new floorspace may be accommodated in a new freestanding building that is designed and sited so as not to compromise the character of the existing building or group of buildings or wider landscape.

5.150 Many agricultural and other rural buildings may no longer be suitable for their original purpose or be surplus to requirements as farming practices change. Both individual and groups of rural buildings can play a valuable role in creating the character of the countryside in a positive way.

5.151 The NPPF supports the conversion of rural buildings to support sustainable growth and expansion of all types of business and enterprise in rural areas. The Council supports this approach in principle as this stock of buildings can provide a useful and viable means of enabling the local rural economy to evolve and diversify without requiring new buildings to be developed in sensitive rural locations. It is acknowledged that recent changes to permitted development rights mean that in some cases the change of use of agricultural buildings does not require planning permission.

5.152 Not all buildings in the rural areas are suitable for conversion because of their design for a particular purpose and / or their condition or location. Buildings must be realistically capable of conversion from their existing state and not require complete or substantial reconstruction. If this issue is in doubt, applicants must be able to produce adequate supporting information, usually a survey report and associated drawings, to illustrate the existing condition of the building.

5.153 Where a rural building is proposed to be converted for employment, non-residential tourism (i.e attractions), leisure or community related purposes, the Council will normally be supportive of such schemes, particularly where they are located adjacent to Tenterden or another rural settlement. However, for this to be the case, the building to be converted must be of a permanent and substantial construction. It will also be important to consider the specific impacts of the proposal in respect of the proposed use(s). For example, in locations not within or adjacent to existing settlements, the scale and nature of the use proposed in terms of its floorspace and consequential potential trip generation should be limited according to the suitability of the local rural road network that serves the site, taking account of the nature of the vehicle movements that would result. In locations adjacent to settlements, a greater trip generation potential may be acceptable subject to the quality of the surrounding road network and any impacts on local residential amenities.

5.154 The Council has adopted supplementary planning guidance on the re-use of agricultural buildings which gives clear guidance on the design of building conversions. This guidance will continue to apply to proposals for conversions to ensure that the integrity and character of the existing building is retained where applicable. When planning permission is granted for a conversion, the Council will also usually remove permitted development rights to extend the building or erect additional buildings within its curtilage. Without this control, the architectural and historic integrity of converted buildings and the rural character of the countryside could be damaged.

5.155 New employment sites (i.e. not conversions) in the countryside will not be permitted unless exceptional circumstances can be demonstrated to set aside the normal presumption against such developments. Such circumstances may include the functional need for a countryside location, such as the processing of local agricultural products. New employment sites in the countryside will need to have regard to the need to protect countryside sites with specific, landscape, biodiversity or historic qualities.

5.156 The e-technology sector is undergoing major changes and the Government - through Broadband Delivery UK[1] - is supporting investment to:

• provide superfast broadband coverage to 90% of the UK by early 2016 and 95% by December 2017,
• provide access to basic broadband (2Mbps) for all from December 2015,
• explore options to provide superfast coverage to the hardest to reach parts of the UK.

5.157 At the local level, the availability, reliability and speed of broadband provision is now a key consideration for house buyers and many view it as essential as the standard utilities. Similarly, it is also a key concern for the business sector.  

5.158 Planning policy can play a role in helping to achieve the transformation in broadband. The NPPF clearly recognises this and supports the delivery of advanced, high quality communications infrastructure and the expansion of high speed broadband where possible.

5.159 Ashford has long been ahead of the national agenda in this regard. In 2008, the Core Strategy took proactive steps to prioritise communications infrastructure by ensuring that duct space was provided for fibre cabling on each new development in the urban area. In the 8 years since this policy approach was developed the fibre network in Ashford has received significant private and public sector investment and the fibre footprint in the Ashford borough has spread significantly. All of Ashford’s exchanges are now fibre enabled.

5.160 The policy below builds upon this pioneering approach and challenges the market yet further to require fibre to the premise (FTTP) for all new developments, wherever practical. In doing so, the approach underpins one of the key principles of this Local Plan with regard to the utilisation, enhancement and expansion of existing infrastructure wherever possible.

5.161 FTTP is recognised by the Government and European Commission as a ‘Next Generation Access (NGA) technology[2] and have prioritised investment accordingly. While superfast speeds can be achieved on current generation copper networks it is widely accepted that NGA technologies should be prioritised. By seeking FTTP, the Council are aiming to provide a futureproof solution for broadband delivery within the Borough.

5.162 Adopting this approach will prevent the need for fibre retrofitting programmes in the future which has significant cost implications and often results in attaching fibre to existing copper networks resulting in a less than optimum solution when compared to new fibre networks being delivered.

5.163 In the urban area, where the fibre network now exists, the cost of installing FTTP in new developments is considered to be relatively small particularly during the build phase of the development. Any costs (above BCIS assumptions) must also be balanced with increased sales values that are likely to be achieved on account of fast and reliable broadband speeds being available.

5.164 In the rural parts of the borough, there has been significant investment in rural broadband which has resulted in the fibre network stretching further into the rural area than ever before. As in the urban area this creates an opportunity for developments to utilise this asset to deliver FTTP in new developments.

5.165 However, the Council recognise that there are more challenges in terms of the viability of provision in the rural area and sometimes the ability to connect to the network is more difficult than in the urban area. With this in mind, the policy below is targeted towards schemes promoting 10 residential units or more and proposals that will deliver reasonably sized, or larger, employment uses.  

5.166 Schemes that fall below these thresholds will be encouraged to deliver FTTP wherever practical to try to ensure that the Borough’s fibre network is delivered to its maximum capacity.

5.167 By implementing this policy approach, the Council is seeking to ensure that future developments remain at the forefront of advances in broadband technology, allowing Ashford to be a market leader and remain a highly attractive location for businesses and residents alike. This aspiration is a central component of the Council’s Five Year Corporate Plan.

5.168 However, in order to be consistent with the provisions in the NPPF, the Council recognise that there may be schemes that come forward which cannot fulfil the policy requirements as stipulated below. In such cases, evidence will be needed from the applicant to demonstrate that a departure from policy is justified. Such evidence could include (but is not limited to) issues of viability, the ability to dig the appropriate physical trench and proximity to the nearest breakout point on the fibre network.

5.169 Where a FTTP solution is not deemed possible (and this position is accepted by the Council) provision of technologies capable of providing speeds in excess of 24Mbps should be delivered wherever practical.

5.170  [1] The government department charged with delivering superfast broadband

5.171 [2] ‘Next Generation Access Networks: wired access networks which consist wholly or in part of optical elements and which are capable of delivering broadband access services with enhanced characteristics (such as higher throughput) as compared to those provided over already existing copper networks.’ Commission Recommendation 2010/572/EU of 20 September 2010 on regulated access to Next Generation Access Networks (NGA)