Full Council
Wednesday 8th December 2021
Briefing Note
Notice of the following motion has been given by Councillor J Sams, seconded by Councillor T Sams:
This Council agrees to extend the Local Plan Review Consultation Regulation 19 and the Sustainability Appraisal of the Local Plan Review Regulation 19 Pre-Submission Consultation from the 12th December 2021 to 4th January 2022, to allow residents and stakeholders sufficient opportunity and time to make representation.
The decision to undertake the Local Plan Review Regulation 19 public consultation for just over 6 weeks was taken by Councillors at the 6th October 2021 Full Council meeting having regard to the background information and circumstances before them.
This latest consultation should be considered within the wider Local Plan Review timetable which has included 2 previous consultations. The current timeline seeks submission to the Secretary of State in March 2022, which will be followed by Examination in Public in late summer/autumn and, if that is successful, a further public consultation in late 2022 on any Main Modifications. Adoption of the plan is then anticipated in January 2023. The published timetable and milestones for the Local Plan Review has also been fully considered by Councillors.
There is significant concern around the potential for Maidstone Borough to continue meeting its much-increased government housing targets over coming years – the timing of the Local Plan Review is key to helping ensure this is the case and the timeframe has been designed to ensure that we minimise the period of time for which the borough does not have an adopted plan in place and therefore the risk of reduced control over development in the borough. Failure to have an adopted plan in place can result in ‘planning by appeal’ and can even result in Councils being placed into special measures by government. Further to the above, six weeks is also a standard consultation period for this stage of Local Plan production for Local Planning Authorities across the country.
As a result, officers recommend that it is neither necessary or appropriate to increase the consultation period.