Involving communities and organisations
We are updating our Statement of Community Involvement (SCI). We adopted our current Statement of Community Involvement in 2020.
In the draft SCI, we are updating our strategy for involving you in planning matters. It covers:
- the different types of consultation and engagement
- who we will consult
- how we will involve you in making planning policy and when considering planning applications
We are consulting on the draft SCI for four weeks from 10am on Thursday 11 September until 4pm on Thursday 9 October 2025.
How to read and comment on the document
You can read and comment on the draft SCI on our Planning Policy Consultation Portal.
This is a simple way of making your comments, and you can sign up to be notified about future planning policy consultations. You can also update your contact details. You can see our user guide to find out how to register, or for what to do if you have forgotten your registration details.
You can read the:
- Draft Statement of Community Involvement
- Statement of Representations, which explains how to make your comments
- Equality Impact Assessment for the SCI
As well as responding via the portal, you can also respond by submitting your comments, along with your name and address, by:
- emailing planning.policy@chelmsford.gov.uk
- writing to Spatial Planning Services, Chelmsford City Council, Civic Centre, Duke Street, Chelmsford, CM1 1JE
- handing them in to us at our Customer Service Centre during our opening hours
Alternatively, you can print a comments form and return it as above.
If you do not have access to a computer, you can request paper copies of the draft SCI and the comments form. We can send you the comments form free of charge. However, for the draft SCI, we will charge to cover printing and postage costs. If you have difficulties making comments by email or post due to a disability, you need to contact us.
Next steps
We will publish comments with the respondent’s name, organisation and agent (where applicable). We will not make any other personal details public. We will hold all data in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998 and the General Data Protection Regulations. You can find out about our Privacy Policy.
After the consultation has closed, we will submit a report to Chelmsford Policy Board. This will include a summary of the consultation feedback, and how we will address that feedback.
We are committed to working with other councils and key organisations on planning issues that cross council boundaries.
The organisations we regularly work with include Essex County Council, National Highways, environmental organisations and education providers.
You can view our Duty to Co-operate Strategy and find out how this co-operation works on our Local Plan Review 2022 section.
We adopted our Local Plan on 27 May 2020. The Local Plan outlines the scale and location of future growth to 2036. It provides an up-to-date development plan in line with government requirements.
We have prepared an Equality Impact Assessment for this Local Plan. We carried out the first assessment when we began preparing the Local Plan in 2014, and reviewed it in 2017.
We reviewed it again for the adoption of the Local Plan in 2020. This was to make sure it reflected the most up to date information and that we took into account any potential impacts.
We considered that the Local Plan had no negative impacts and there was a low risk of negative impact on any affected group.
We will continue to monitor impacts, and if particular issues arise, we will take appropriate action.