What makes the buildings and villages of the National Park so special? What do you consider good design to be? What should future development in the North York Moors look like?
These are just some of the questions we want to ask you as we develop a new Design Code – a tool that will shape future development within the National Park.
What is a design code?
In essence, the Design Code will ensure that new development continues the gentle evolution of our built environment, which has been shaped over thousands of years.
In practical terms, it will be a set of design requirements that provide specific, detailed parameters for the physical development of an area. It will also set a baseline standard of quality and practice, which the National Park Authority will consider when determining planning applications.
At this stage, before new legislation is fully enacted, our Design Code will likely be adopted as a Supplementary Planning Document (SPD). When this happens, it will replace our current set of design guides.
We have done some early thinking on how to create a Design Code for the National Park and there are five questions we would like to ask you. You can explore these by scrolling across the boxes below. We are particularly keen to hear your thoughts on the way we have described our villages, as well as your thoughts on what you feel good design is (first two boxes). There’s a form on each page that you can use to let us know your thoughts.
If you wish to provide feedback by other means, you can email your response to policy@northyorkmoors.org.uk or post your response to: The Policy Team, The Old Vicarage, Bondgate, Helmsley, North Yorkshire YO62 5BP.
The closing date for comments is 31 July 2024.
Next stages
We will use all your feedback to help develop a draft design code, at which point we will ask for further views. We expect this to happen around November 2024. We then hope to finalise our Design Code by June 2025.