Local Plan moves to next stage of examination process

The examination of the Council’s proposed new Local Plan by an independent planning Inspector which began last month has been given the go ahead to move on to Stage 2 of the process.

Once a local planning authority has finished preparing and consulting on a Local Plan it must be submitted to the Secretary of State who will appoint an Inspector to carry out an independent examination. This process is dealt with by the Planning Inspectorate. At the end of the examination process the Inspector will send a report to the local authority recommending whether or not they can adopt the Plan.

The Council’s Local Plan was submitted to the Inspectorate in November 2021 following an extensive period of preparation and public consultation, and the examination began in March 2022. The Stage 2 hearings are expected to begin in May.
During the examination the Inspector must decide if the Local Plan is legally compliant and sound. The process of examination can take many months and involves a number of public hearings. The Stage 1 hearings cover legal compliance issues including the ‘duty to cooperate’, if this requirement is not met the Local Plan would not be permitted to move to Stage 2. The Inspector confirmed to the Council on 7 April that the examination could progress to Stage 2.

The Council’s Local Plan will guide future development in the borough up to 2038. The Local Plan puts forward new sites for future housing and other development, and new and updated planning policies against which future planning applications will be determined.

The Local Plan and all the supporting evidence for it can been seen in the New Local Plan section of our website.

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