A key aspiration of St Cuthbert's Garden Village is that good design is at the heart of the development and embedded throughout. A Strategic Design Supplementary Planning Document was adopted on 6 April 2021 by the City Council. It will ensure that quality design plays a vital role in planning negotiations and decisions from the outset.

The SPD will help put in place robust planning guidance to be used when considering planning applications on land within the garden village ahead of the proposed adoption of the St Cuthbert's Local Plan in 2022.

The SPD amplifies existing policies in the adopted Carlisle District Local Plan 2015-2030, as well as established and more recent national guidance, and will set out the design and environmental standards expected of planning applications coming forward on land within the Garden Village in advance of and beyond the adoption of the St Cuthbert's Local Plan.