The Local Plan strengthens our position to do this if the site is not within the Local Plan. Additionally we are able to continue to be able demonstrate a five year housing supply – another important factor that’s considered by an inspector if an appeal is made, so it puts us in a much stronger position

An adopted Local Plan is under planning legislation the starting for the assessment and the determination of planning applications.   

The issues raised during the Regulation 18 consultation have been taken account in the preparation of the Regulation 19 Local Plan.

If you considered that these have not been fully addressed or that new issues have arisen that will affect the soundness of the proposed Local Plan, it is essential that you do submit comments at this stage of the process.  The main difference at this stage of the process  is that comments received at the Regulation 19 stage will be forwarded to the Inspector so when making comments please don’t simply say ‘please refer to my regulation 18 / previous comments.’ Only comments that have been submitted at the Reg 19 stage will be considered by an Inspector, so it is important that you include all the relevant information in your representation in a clear and concise way.  

Please see FAQ 'What is the test of soundness' 

All the feedback from our Strategic Issues and Priorities (SIP) and Regulation 18 consultation has been reviewed – and where it has raised the need, more evidence has been gathered and used to inform the next stage of the plan. This feedback has helped shaped the version you will see now.

There is a clear mandate from government that all Local Planning Authorities need to have an up-to-date Local Plan.  Without an up-to-date Local Plan the Council would not be able to coordinate where and when development should take place. The Council would have to rely upon national policy when determining planning applications, which would not allow local circumstances to be taken into consideration. There could be speculative planning applications on sites which the council and local community do not support, but they would be difficult to resist, and may get allowed at a planning appeal. Much needed infrastructure to support and mitigate development in the district, would only be supplied on a site by site approach, preventing coordinated forward planning of infrastructure provision.

The council will not respond directly to representations (comments) made at the Regulation 19 stage, as copies of these will be sent directly to the Planning Inspectorate alongside the Submission Plan.

The council will, however, summarise the Regulation 19 representations and may suggest to the Inspector that minor modifications from the Regulation 19 version of the plan be made as necessary, to address particular outstanding issues, or additional information that arises before Submission.