The Inspector
The Secretary of State appointed Yvonne Wright BSc (Hons) DipTP MSc DMS MRTPI as the inspector.
The Independent Examination hearing sessions took place in November and December 2018. You can view the Examination documents, including the programme, agendas and guidance notes by expanding the tabs.
We anticipate the Inspector will issue her report early next year.
She will apply tests of soundness, which assess if:
- we have prepared the Local Plan in accordance with the Duty to Co-operate
- the Local Plan is legally compliant
- the Local Plan is consistent with national policy
We will add any updates from the Inspector or other new documents as we receive them, under the Post hearing documents tab.
The Programme Officer
We have appointed a Programme Officer, an independent officer who will organised and manage the administrative and procedural matters of the Examination.
Our Programme Officer is Andrea Copsey.
For any queries about the Local Plan Examination, you can contact Andrea:
What the Local Plan includes
The draft Local Plan includes:
- around 8,800 houses on new site allocations
- around 1,300 houses on sites not identified (windfalls)
- around 11,700 new homes which already have planning permission
- 10 Gypsy and Traveller pitches
- 24 Travelling Showpeople plots
- 725 new jobs a year
- 55,000 square metres of business and employment space
- protection for the green belt, valued landscapes, heritage assets, and areas for wildlife and nature conservation
- supporting infrastructure including schools, roads, transport improvements, and community and leisure facilities
- planning polices which we will use to determine planning applications
Evidence base
The evidence base contains the background and technical documents we used to prepare the Local Plan. These include housing, traffic, landscape and sustainability. We have also been working with our partners to understand infrastructure needs.
Consultation stages
We have carried out three stages of consultation on the Local Plan.
- Issues and Options, from November 2015 to January 2016
- Preferred Options, from March 2017 to May 2017
- Pre-Submission, from January 2018 to March 2018
We carefully considered all the comments we received in these consultations, and used them to progress the Local Plan to submission stage.
You can: