Crucial to much of the national changes to planning policies, and reflected in the recent publication by Mid Sussex DC of a draft District Plan currently being consulted on, along with a draft Sustainability Appraisal and draft Habitat Regulations Assessment, is the notion of sustainable development.

It is therefore reassuring to hear the Minister responsible, when asked what definitions of sustainable development are used by his Department, Bob Neil (Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Communities and Local Government) referred to “the classic definition of sustainable definition, set out by the Brundtland Commission, i.e. development that meets the needs of the present without comprising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. This is reflected in the [Coalition] Government’s vision for sustainable development published in February 2011 and by this Department in their work including the consultation draft of the national planning policy framework”.

The task of the new District Plan should be to hold this undertaking to account in the detail of its implementation.