The Strategic Planning Manager introduced the report, stating that significant progress had been made on the Regulation 19 ‘draft for submission’ documents and the series of studies and topic papers that formed part of the wider evidence base.

To ensure that the Regulation 19 documents were complete, it was proposed that the Local Development Scheme (LDS) be amended. The LDS was a statutory requirement, with the revised timetable shown within Appendix 1 to the report. The revised timetable would allow the Council to ensure the Regulation 19 document and evidence base was as robust as possible, meeting the associated legal requirements and reducing the risk of failure at examination of the Local Plan Review (LPR).

Once the Regulation 19 documents had been published, various stakeholders and the public would be able to consider whether the important tests of soundness and legal compliance had been met. This would provide the Council with further information as it proceeded with the Local Plan Review. If the Council chose to undertake further evidence collection or consultation, there would be further time, resource and cost implications.

The Strategic Planning Manager reassured the Committee that a revised LDS would minimise any period in which the 2017 adopted Local Plan would be out of date and that the policies within the Plan would remain effective. If the revised LDS timetable was agreed, the delay to adopting the LPR would be circa three months. However, the Council’s LPR would have been examined by the adopted Local Plan’s expiry. The current LDS timetable had been accelerated in September 2020, in response to the Government’s proposal to introduce a new standard methodology that would have further increased the Council’s housing targets. This was no longer the case.

The Committee sought assurances from officers that the new LDS timetable would be met and this was confirmed subject to no unforeseen events occurring.   

RESOLVED: That Council be recommended to approve the Local Development Scheme 2021-2023, as attached at Appendix 1 to the report.