The Society participated in the formal Regulation 19 Local Plan Consultation which closed on 6th February 2025.

According to the Borough’s guidelines, representations at this stage should only be made on “the legal and procedural compliance of the Proposed Submission Local Plan, the soundness of the Proposed Submission Local Plan and whether the Proposed Submission Local Plan is in conformity with the Duty-to-Cooperate.”

The format of the consultation required any assertion of a lack of soundness to be substantiated with full evidence, the researching and development of which would be beyond the Committee’s resources. Accordingly, the Society limited its response to adding comments by way of support and suggestion to the Borough’s proposed plan.

In addition, the format of the on-line consultation form was not at all user friendly, and the response to each individual question raised in effect had to be a separate representation, presumably for ease of subsequent analysis.

The Society’s response made suggestions regarding external space standards, design, site allocation SA30, local green spaces, groundwater flooding, heritage, gypsies’ & travellers’ pitches, and site allocations SA6 & SA7.

The full consolidated text of the Society’s responses can be found here.