Submission Local Plan: Development Management Policies - Main Modifications

The Council adopted the Local Plan: strategy and sites 2015-2034 in 2019.  We are now nearing completion of the second part of the Local Plan, the Local Plan: Development Management Policies. This document will provide further and more detailed planning policies to use when planning applications are determined.

The Council consulted on the draft ‘Local Plan: development management policies – Issues and Preferred Options’ consultation in 2020, which set out the issues that the development management policies should address and the preferred options for addressing them. The comments submitted during that consultation are available at the link above and were used to develop the 'Proposed Submission Local Plan: Development Management Policies' which underwent consultation in January and February 2022.

The 2022 Proposed Submission Local Plan: Development Management was submitted to the Secretary of State in June 2022 for independent examination.  A series of public hearing sessions on the Submission Local Plan were held from 15 November to 17 November 2022.  This was followed by a targeted consultation, regarding biodiversity net gain matters that arose during the hearing sessions, that ran from 18 November to 02 December 2022.

The interim conclusion by the independent Inspector is that the plan is 'sound' subject to main modifications. 

Find out more:

• Local Plan part 2 examination web page
• Local Plan part 2 examination documents

Public consultation

The Inspector has produced a set of main modifications to the plan, which are subject to a seven-week period of public consultation. The consultation will run from 12 noon on 15 December 2022 to 12 noon on 02 February 2023.

The consultation is open to anyone and is limited to the proposed main modifications only. Any duly made representations received during the consultation period will be provided to the Inspector who will consider whether these modifications should be made in order to make the plan sound.

• All proposed main modifications are listed in the Schedule of Proposed Main Modifications. You can find the schedule below under "Consultation documents".
• Proposed new text is underlined in green (new text looks like this), and text proposed for deletion text is struck through in red (deleted text looks like this). Main modifications to maps are shown within yellow boxes and inset maps.
• The main modifications are intended to address issues of legal compliance and/or soundness and representations should focus on the effect of the modification(s) on the Plan’s soundness or legal compliance. For more information about what this means, please read this guidance (link opens in a new window). 

As well as the main modifications, a number of additional (minor) modifications have also been made to the plan. These changes are not related to the soundness of the plan and do not impact upon the direction or application of the policy. These are not subject to consultation, you can view the Additional Modification schedule for information purposes in the 'Supporting Documents' section below.

Please complete the "Online comments form" below or email or write to us using the contact details at the bottom of this page.