1.      INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND

1.      

1.1     At the 10th March 2020 meeting of the Strategic Planning and Infrastructure (SPI) Committee, Members resolved that officers should provide a short-written update at each future meeting concerning any slippage and/or progress on delivering the plan on the timescale agreed. This report provides the requested update

1.2     At its 6th October 2021 meeting, Full Council agreed, amongst other matters, the submission of the Local Plan Review documents to the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (SoS) for examination under Section 20 of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 (as amended). Delegated authority was also given to the Strategic Planning and Infrastructure Committee to agree a schedule of proposed Main Modifications (which this Committee believe to be acceptable arising from the Regulation 19 consultation responses) to be submitted with the Local Plan Review Draft for Submission document and associated Policies Map to the SoS.

1.3     At its 21^st March 2022 meeting, this committee considered the Local Plan Review proposed Main Modifications and agreed these (with specific modifications), along with agreeing the draft Statements of Common Ground and noting the updated evidence base.

1.4     As a result of the above, preparations for submission of the Local Plan Review documents continued and submission took place on 31^st March 2022.

1.5     An Inspector (or Inspectors) will now be appointed on behalf of the Secretary of State in order to consider the Local Plan Review documents with the intention of undertaking an Independent Examination. This is normally structured via a series of ‘matters, issues and questions’ that commence shortly after submission and will then lead into the examination hearings themselves.

1.6     In accordance with guidance, at the point of submission, the Local Planning Authority must have appointed a Programme Officer. This is an independent person, whose role is to act as coordinator co-ordinator and to effectively be the conduit between the appointed Inspector(s) and the Local Planning Authority or others involved in the Examination. We have now entered into a contract for this role with Louise St John Howe, who was also the Programme Officer for the current Local Plan and therefore knows the area.

1.7     From this point forward, the Local Planning Authority has little influence over timings for either the preliminary sessions or the main examination itself, and there remains some uncertainty in relation to the use of the main holiday period in July and August by the Inspector, or otherwise.  However, it is possible that from some point in May, we will start to receive ‘Matters, Issues and Questions’ (MIQ’s) from the Inspector via the Programme Officer. These MIQ’s are effectively the areas that the Inspector requires additional information around in advance of the examination and will generally be a good indication of some of the main areas of the draft plan which are likely to receive specific attention during examination.

2.       RISK

2.1    This report is presented for information only has no direct risk management implications. Risks associated with the LPR are dealt with through the usual operational framework and have been previously reported.

3.        REPORT APPENDICES