Issue - meetings

ORDERED that Executive

1.    Approves the revised Statement of Community Involvement.

2.    Delegates authority to the Director of Regeneration, in consultation with the Executive Member for Development, to make changes to the Statement of Community Involvement as a result of future reviews.

The Executive Member for Development submitted an item for Executive consideration. The purpose of the report was to seek Executive approval for a revised Statement of Community Involvement.

Under the provisions of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004, the Council was required to prepare a Statement of Community Involvement. (SCI), to explain how it would involve the community in the preparation of local development documents (such as the Local Plan), the preparation of neighbourhood plans, and on planning applications.

They should set out how the Council would meet the legislative requirements in undertaking its planning activities, as well as any additional engagement it may do beyond what is legally required. The Town and Country Planning (Local Planning) (England) Regulations 2012 also required the Council to review the SCI at least every five years.

The Council’s current SCI was adopted in March 2020. Since then, there had been a number of changes to national planning policy and legislation, and the way the Council delivered its planning service, meaning that there were some aspects of the SCI that were out-of-date. It was important that the SCI remained current as it helped to ensure compliance with statutory duties. This would be particularly important as the new Local Plan was finalised this year.

Officers had completed a review of the SCI and were recommending a small number of changes that were detailed in the table at paragraph 4.3 of the report.

There was no statutory requirement to undertake public consultation on the SCI and following approval of the revised SCI, the Council’s website would be updated to replace the previous SCI with the new version. The SCI would be used as appropriate by the Council’s Planning Service.

The Mayor commented that community involvement for the local plan had been excellent.

OPTIONS

Not to update the SCI. This would mean the Council would not comply with the legislation regarding reviewing the SCI every five years. There would be potential compliance issues, particularly with preparing the Local Plan.

ORDERED that Executive

1.    Approves the revised Statement of Community Involvement.

2.    Delegates authority to the Director of Regeneration, in consultation with the Executive Member for Development, to make changes to the Statement of Community Involvement as a result of future reviews.

REASONS

The Council had a statutory duty to prepare an SCI, to explain how it would involve the community in the preparation of its Local Plan, the preparation of neighbourhood plans, and on planning applications. The Town and Country Planning (Local Planning) (England) Regulations 2012 required that SCIs were reviewed every five years.

The Council’s current SCI was adopted in March 2020. In order to comply with the legislation a review needed to be completed by 17th March 2025.