Supplementary planning documents

Supplementary planning documents (SPDs) are intended to expand upon policy or provide further detail to policies in development plan documents (DPDs), but they do not have development plan status. These documents can demonstrate how policies can be taken forward. They do not include land allocations or policies which should be subject to independent examination.

An SPD is not part of the statutory development plan, unlike the DPD. However, they are an important consideration in determining planning applications.

SPDs may cover a range of issues and can be thematic or site specific. For example, an SPD can be a design guide, development brief or a topic or issue based document. SPDs must be consistent with national and regional planning policies as well as local authority DPDs.