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 meeting of the committee, concerning any slippage and/or progress on delivering the plan on the timescale agreed. This report provides the requested update.

1.2     The Local Plan Review Regulation 19 public consultation on the ‘draft for submission’ documents took place for just over 6-weeks and finished on 12 December 2021. This represented the third public consultation on the Local Plan Review.

1.3     The next key milestone in the production process will be for the Local Planning Authority to consider whether to proceed to Regulation 22 submission of the documents (along with the supporting evidence base) to the Secretary of State, in order that they may be considered for Independent Examination.

1.4     In order to inform considerations in this regard, officers are currently processing and analysing duly made representations that have been received to the Regulation 19 consultation.

1.5     At the time of writing this report, in the region of 2,250 representations appear to have been registered. However, it is worth noting that the processing of representations includes the removal of duplications and any invalid representations and the final number is therefore likely to vary as a result.

1.6     In addition to the above actions, processing of representations also includes assignment of unique ID numbers and removal of personal information for safeguarding and GDPR purposes.

1.7     As noted in the Local Plan Review Update report to the 7 December 2021 meeting of this committee, in order to avoid any delay, processing of the representations has been taking place as representations have been received and, where appropriate, early analysis has commenced.

1.8     The ongoing analysis suggests that the majority of representations have focussed on the garden community proposals and their impact on the sites and surrounding areas.

1.9     It is also apparent that, in a number of instances, multiple responses have been submitted on the Local Plan Review by some representors, whereas others have used single responses to capture more than one issue. As part of the analysis, officers will seek to ensure that all key issues are identified, and matters considered.

1.10  Post-Regulation 19 consultation work has also commenced, and this includes engagement with key stakeholders and statutory consultees to understand the context to representations and assist in taking forward proposals and requirements associated with the Local Plan Review.

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

3.1    None