Decision details

The Director of Economic Development and Planning submitted a report informing committee of the updated Local Development Scheme (LDS) which set out the anticipated timeframe for the Local Plan Review.

The Local Development Scheme is a statutory document that the Council has to have in place and is a public statement of the programme that the Council intends to take forward to deliver the Local Plan for the area.

Following the completion of the Local Plan review, work had commenced on the production of the necessary evidence base documents to support the new Local Plan, however, work was stalled due to the ongoing pandemic and the publication at the end of summer 2020 of the Government’s White Paper on the plan making system. This had put the programme almost 12 months behind.

The Government had stipulated that local planning authorities have an adopted and up to date plan in place by the end of 2023. Advice received from the Planning Advisory Service was to move the process on and where possible consolidate stages to maximise efficiency, whilst still adhering to all the statutory stages. This would be done by running elements of the work in parallel. The proposed time table reflected this intention and was included in the report for members’ information.

RESOLVED THAT COMMITTEE:

Authorise the Director of Economic Development and Planning to publish the Local Development Scheme and progress work on the Local Plan update in consultation with the Development Plan working group.