Case study: Oldham

Oldham Council’s involvement in the LAEP development process was minimal, particularly in terms of direct input from the town planning team. While Energy Systems Catapult made efforts to engage with the council and provided an opportunity to incorporate any locally available data, Oldham Council lacked significant internal resources and data to be able to contribute. As a result, the LAEP largely represented an external effort, described by local authority stakeholders as “done to us but that was fine.”

Despite this, the published LAEP has provided a useful evidence base for the local authority’s decarbonisation initiatives, including through informing a high-level business case for decarbonising the area and contributing to the development of a prospectus for attracting private-sector investment. This was seen as valuable to the local authority, as it is keen to explore potential joint ventures with private-sector investors. The local authority officers also identified the LAEP’s value as an evidence base that can be used as justification for planners and developers to help progress low-carbon projects.

However, the lack of local authority involvement in the LAEP process led to some potential missed opportunities. The local authority officers identified that while the LAEP has provided useful information, the recommendations in the plan are focused on what was possible at the time of the study, in the context of existing policy, rather than exploring a full range of technical possibilities. For example, despite a local authority request for the LAEP to consider suitable sites for wind energy, the LAEP did not consider this technology as, at the time, wind energy was not supported by national planning policy in England. Since the publication of the LAEP the national planning policy for onshore wind has changed and the local authority is keen to progress opportunities for this technology. As a result, the local authority is now working with the GMCA on a separate study to assess wind energy resource, identifying areas where wind energy might be most acceptable. The intention is for this separate study to then carry weight in planning terms, potentially as a Supplementary Planning Document (SPD) (although the government’s potential phased move from SPDs to supplementary plans has not yet been considered). Considering wind energy within the LAEP would likely have removed the need for this additional work.

The timing of the LAEP coincided with the drafting of Oldham Council’s local plan, creating some opportunities for alignment. The external LAEP team did not have any direct involvement with the development of the local plan, such as through working groups or cross-departmental meetings. However, the council noted that, during this time, the LAEP development team could be contacted to ask about the outputs of the LAEP.

The draft local plan contains the following reference to the LAEP:

“The Oldham Local Area Energy Plan (LAEP) identifies opportunities for low carbon energy including solar, hydrogen, heat pumps, electric vehicle charging and a district heat network. In addition, the council is working on an Oldham Mine Water Heat Network project...’”

The local plan thus refers to the LAEP,  but cannot give any additional weight to projects identified in it.

Additionally, the LAEP is starting to feed into subsequent planning work such as the current development of an EV Charging Infrastructure Strategy. In this context, the LAEP is providing useful spatial data on housing types to inform where off-street chargers can be located. Such an example shows how LAEP data can be drawn upon to help inform wider decarbonisation planning.

However, the integration of the LAEP and local plan has faced several limitations, most notably:

• LAEPs can provide evidence, but not weight within the town planning system: The LAEP serves as part of the local plan’s evidence base but lacks enforceability or significant weight within the town planning framework. It has, therefore, had limited impact in town planning terms.
• Evolving evidence for renewable energy: As discussed above, the absence of consideration of onshore wind through the LAEP has necessitated additional studies.
• Lack of community-level input on local priorities (as discussed below): Local authority officers felt that the published LAEP failed to account for local community priorities. While providing a broad strategic overview, the LAEP process did not consider local community needs, and officers expect that this could potentially create challenges in real-world implementation.

There is also a recognition from the local authority that there will be a need for additional engagement with planning officers to ensure they know what the LAEP is and how it could be used within town planning.

Oldham Council’s use of CLEP provided valuable feedback on the limitations of the LAEP methodology, particularly its failure to fully account for local community priorities. While LAEPs provide a broad strategic overview, they often miss nuanced community needs, which can create challenges when it comes to real-world implementation. An approach such as CLEP can ensure that the projects that are prioritised within a local area reflect local needs. However, consideration needs to be given to how to ensure that such plans are cost effective and can input into town planning policy.

The Oldham case study underscores the challenge of translating LAEP outputs into enforceable town planning policies. While LAEPs can serve as valuable evidence, the lack of statutory weight limits their impact on town planning decisions, hence the local plan only refers to the existence of the LAEP. There are challenges in working out how to incorporate the CLEP into town planning policy.