Involving communities and organisations
We are committed to ensuring that we involve the community, interested organisations and statutory stakeholders in planning and development matters which affect them. We want to make it as easy as possible for you to get involved.
We have updated our Statement of Community Involvement (SCI).
The SCI sets out 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 consulted on the updates in September/October 2025. We reviewed the comments we received and have published them with the respondent’s name, organisation and agent (where applicable) on the Planning Policy Consultation Portal.
We have also published a Feedback Report. This sets out a summary of the consultation, the comments received, and the changes that we have made to the SCI as a result.
We will not make any other personal details public. We 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.
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.