Issue details

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 Head of Service Significant Officer Decision on 29 October 2019. It is published to the website and can be viewed from this link:
https://crawley.gov.uk/planning/planning-policy/engagement-and-monitoring/statement-community-involvement
However, this document requires some factual update and minor amendments in order to address the conflicts of the expectations for public consultation during the current restrictions in place due to COVID-19. In particular, in relation to events being held and the publication and deposit of documents in the council offices and other appropriate public buildings (historically considered to be Crawley Library). The amendments to the SCI follow current government advice (Statements of Community Involvement ).
It should be noted that the current minimum requirements for public consultation in plan-making are established through the Planning Regulations (Town and Country (Local Development) (England) Regulations 2012: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2012/767/contents/made. Until and unless these are amended it continues to be necessary for the council to make documents publicly available to inspect by members of the public at the council offices and other appropriate places.
Therefore, the amendment to the SCI confirms the council will, at least, meet the requirements of the Regulations, including as they may be amended or revised (either temporarily or permanently).