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Decision details

Statement of Community Involvement October 2019 Factual Update

Decision Maker: Head of Economy and Planning

Decision status: For Determination

Is Key decision?: No

Is subject to call in?: No

Purpose:

A key legal requirement of the Local Plan Review is that it must be prepared in accordance with an up-to-date adopted Statement of Community Involvement (SCI). The current SCI was adopted by Cabinet on 8 February 2017 and was published to the website.
However, this document requires some factual update and minor amendments ahead of the Local Plan being considered by Cabinet/Full Council for Publication and Submission in order to reflect the current position:
• “other planning guidance documents” constituting SPD, and deleting reference to “other” planning guidance documents;
• the changes to the process and adoption procedures for planning documents so all SPDs are approved by Portfolio Holder, rather than some being Cabinet decisions;
• changes to the Development Management processes, including the introduction of pre-application charges
• some clarifications to the processes and procedures relating to Neighbourhood Planning and Neighbourhood Plans; and
• the change from “Forward” Planning to “Strategic” Planning.

Decision:

To approve the Statement of Community Involvement November 2019 Factual Update as the council's adopted SCI in accordance with Section 18 of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 (as amended).

Alternative options considered:

Option 1 - Not to update the SCI and continue to Full Council and publication (Regulation 19) consultation with the Local Plan on the basis of the existing adopted February 2019 SCI.
Option 2 - To make factual updates to the SCI to ensure the Local Plan is considered at Full Council and is published for formal (Regulation 19) consultation in accordance with the most up-to-date and procedurally/legally correct position (Chosen Option).
Option 3 - To undertake a full review of the SCI, including formal consultation.
Option 2 was chosen as the most appropriate approach. There is insufficient time to undertake a full review with consultation without delaying the Local Plan Review process significantly. Critically, the SCI was comprehensively reviewed relatively recently in 2017, and the procedural changes since then required only minor amendments to the document. Option 1 was discounted as the risks associated with continuing to a Full Council decision without an up-to-date SCI was considered to potentially open the Local Plan up to challenge through Judicial Review at the end of the whole Local Plan Review process.

Publication date: 12/11/2019

Date of decision: 29/10/2019