A six-week consultation on the new South Gloucestershire Council Local Plan has opened. The process will allow local residents, community groups, town and parish councils, landowners, developers and other stakeholders to share their views before government planning inspectors assess the soundness of the draft Plan and how it will meet the needs of the district over the next 15 years.
In producing the new draft Plan, a number of earlier consultations and engagements have taken place in recent years, leading to changes and improvements in the proposals. Changes to government policies have also had an impact.
All local authorities are required to have an up-to-date Local Plan, which helps councils direct where new homes should go to meet the needs of current and future generations.
The Plan will also provide a template for the delivery of community facilities and employment opportunities to meet the needs of growing and changing populations.
South Gloucestershire Council is also looking to use the Local Plan to help it achieve a range of other key priorities; to make the district cleaner and greener; help to tackle inequalities; and to improve transport and other infrastructure for local communities.
South Gloucestershire Council Cabinet Member for Planning, Regeneration, and Infrastructure, Councillor Chris Willmore, said: “It is vital that we put in place a strong new Local Plan for our future.
“By setting out our preferences and our policies on a wide range of issues that matter to local people, we can protect ourselves from ‘planning by appeal’, which is what happens when developers force their way through gaps in outdated local planning documents to throw up houses that suit their balance sheets, but not the needs of our communities.
“We believe that this draft Plan meets our needs, now and for the future. While nationally the definition of green belt land has been changed, our plans restrict any development on such spaces to just 2.53 per cent of the South Gloucestershire green belt.
“We really want local people to take part in this latest stage of the consultation process. The new Local Plan will cover South Gloucestershire for 15 years. In one way or another it will affect everyone who lives here now, our children and those who follow us.
“The Plan faces up to some difficult decisions and some controversial topics, but if we, as a community, don’t take these on, we will have development done to us not for us, which is not acceptable to this council or our communities.”
Details of the consultation can be found on the council website at: www.southglos.gov.uk/reg19localplan. The consultation will run until Friday 11 April, after which all submitted responses will be passed to the government’s planning inspectorate for consideration.
This is the final stage of consultation on the Local Plan, which will be conducted under the provisions of Regulation 19 of the Town and Country Planning Regulations 2012. This and the supporting representation procedure sets out that the planning inspectors are only able to consider specific feedback as part of this consultation. To be considered, all comments must relate to one of the following three areas:
- Is the Plan sound?
- Is it legally compliant with the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF)?
- Has it been prepared in accordance with the duty to co-operate?
The council expects the inspectors to review this feedback towards the end of 2025 and for in-person hearings to take place next spring, where they will invite the council, individuals, representative groups and other stakeholders to give evidence, at the Inspector’s discretion.
The purpose of the Inspector’s review of the Plan and the gathering of further evidence through the hearings, will be to determine whether the Plan is compliant and ‘sound’ based on the NPPF.
If they decide that the Plan has been prepared in accordance with legal and procedural requirements and that it is sound, they will send it back to the council, including any modifications that they consider are necessary, for it to be formally adopted, which is expected to happen by the end of 2026. The adopted Plan would then be in effect for 15 years, until 2041.
