Local Plan Review

We will acknowledge receipt of all ‘duly made’ representations to the consultation documents, but we will not enter into individual correspondence. We will record and publish all comments on the Consultation Portal.

We will send all comments to the Planning Inspector. This includes all the comments from this focused consultation, as well as the comments from the last consultation in February/March 2025. We will also send the Inspector a summary of the main issues raised and publish it online. 

You can:

• view our What is a Local Plan? video
• download a copy of the frequently asked questions
• read our Newsletter for Focused Consultation (Additional and Expanded Sites)
• read our Newsletter for Integrated Impact Assessment Addendum
• view the exhibition panels online

You can still read the Pre-Submission stage consultation documents we published in Spring 2025, but you can no longer make comments on them. 

These documents are large in size. You may find it easier to download and view these documents on a desktop computer, rather than on a smartphone or tablet.

Pre-Submission Local Plan Consultation Document

Pre-Submission Integrated Impact Assessment (IIA)

We adopted our current Local Plan in May 2020. It guides growth and development across Chelmsford City Council's area to 2036. We need to review the plan at least every five years, to see if we need to update it. The review means that the Local Plan will now run until 2041.

First stage: Issues and Options (completed)

This was the first stage of consultation, which took place in 2022. Many people and organisations commented, and we have carefully considered all the responses, alongside updated evidence, national planning policy, new local priorities, and monitoring data.  

You can read an Issues and Options feedback report which sets out the consultation feedback we received on the Issues and Options consultation and how we have taken the comments into account when preparing the Preferred Options Local Plan.

Second stage: Preferred Options (completed)

This consultation was the second formal stage in the preparation of the review plan, and involved residents, businesses, developers, and other interested parties. 

We have published a Preferred Options feedback report setting out a review of the consultation activity, a summary of the representations we received, and how these comments have been used to develop the Pre-Submission Local Plan document.

Third stage: Pre-Submission (completed)

This consultation was the third formal stage in the preparation of the review plan. This consultation focused on legal compliance and consistency with national planning policy.

The consultation ran for a period of six weeks from 10am on Tuesday 4 February 2025 to 4pm on Tuesday 18 March 2025.

We have published a Pre-Submission feedback report setting out a review of the consultation activity, and a summary of the representations we received. 

Fourth stage: Focused Consultation Additional Sites (consultation closed)

This consultation focused on additional and expanded housing and employment sites.

The consultation ran for seven weeks, from Thursday 20 November 2025 to Thursday 8 January 2026. 

We are now reviewing all the comments we received.

Final stage: Submission (still to come)

This is the formal Submission of the Local Plan. We will submit all plan documents, evidence, and comments to the Planning Inspector for an Independent Examination.

We will continue to assess the Local Plan as we review it, to make sure it contributes towards sustainability. We will assess the following aspects of sustainable development:

• Sustainability Appraisal
• Strategic Environmental Assessment
• Habitats Regulations Assessment
• Health Impact Assessment
• Equality Impact Assessment

The IIA assesses the issues and options against a range of social, environmental and economic indicators and helps to identify all the likely significant effects. The IIA advises on ways in which any adverse effects could be avoided, reduced or mitigated or how any positive effects could be maximised. This helps to ensure that the emerging policies, plans and allocations in the Local Plan are promoting sustainable development.

We use the Strategic Housing and Employment Land Availability Assessment (SHELAA) to assess sites nominated by landowners, promoters and developers. This helps us when researching and developing future Local Plans.

The SHELAA 2025/2026 is our latest published assessment. This assesses the sites put forward to us for consideration as part of the Local Plan Review. You can view the outcomes of that assessment.

The SHELAA is open all year round, meaning you can submit a new site or amend an existing site on a rolling basis. We aim to assess submissions yearly. We anticipate that the next cut-off point for submissions will be the close of the consultation on the Chelmsford Local Plan Focused Consultation Additional Sites (Regulation 19) Documents on 8 January 2026.

You can submit a site for future assessment, or amend an already submitted site, through the current SHELAA facility. 

You can find out more about how to submit or amend a site, and see the latest assessment outcomes.

We have a specially designed consultation portal for Local Plan and other planning policy consultations.

If you register, you can:

• read and save consultation documents
• make your comments online
• receive alerts on future consultations

You can find out more about how to use the consultation portal.

We use the Local Development Scheme (LDS) to manage the plan-making process. It sets out our timetable for preparing the documents and for consulting on the Local Plan review.

We first adopted an LDS in 2006 and we have reviewed it regularly as we have made progress on producing our Local Plan.

This LDS is the tenth review. You can download the Chelmsford Local Development Scheme 2025-2028.

You can also download the ninth review of the LDS, which we published in November 2023. You can view the changes we have made since November 2023 in Appendix 1 of the 2025-2028 LDS document.

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.

We have to ensure that we properly co-ordinate strategic issues such as:

• land for new homes and jobs
• infrastructure
• providing schools
• mitigating climate change

We have adopted a Duty to Co-operate Strategy, which sets out who we will co-operate with and when, plus how we will do it.

You can download the Duty to Co-operate Strategy.