2 Foreword
2.0.1 The West Northamptonshire Joint Core Strategy will be the long term strategic plan for the development of the area which means it will deal with the big picture of what will happen here. It will be a 'spatial' plan which means it deals with places and the activities that happen within them. It will replace parts of the Local Plans for Daventry District, South Northamptonshire District and Northampton Borough.
2.0.2 This document is the West Northamptonshire Joint Core Strategy - 'Emergent Strategy'. It sets out current thinking with respect to the policy approach that should be taken in West Northamptonshire and is based on the evidence collected to date. It is not a draft plan or final strategy but is based on an extensive body of work.
2.0.3 Following a six-week consultation period, further work with key stakeholders and further evidence gathering this thinking will become firmer; the document will change and it will become the Joint Core Strategy that will be put forward for submission to the Government Office for the East Midlands. At that point - in November 2009, a further consultation period will take place.
2.0.4 At present some parts of the now well developed evidence base are clearer than others - the contents of this plan must not therefore be seen as a firm commitment to the policy approach contained within, although much of the evidence base is strong in the context of the objectives of the plan. Where further work is needed we have endeavoured to note this in the text. The key studies that relate to the evidence base can be found on the following website: www.westnorthamptonshirejpu.org.