Preparation of the Statement of Community Involvement timeline

November/December 2004 - Stakeholder Consultation

The Council raised awareness that a Statement of Community Involvement was going to be produced and consulted local stakeholder and interest groups on issues regarding consultation techniques. The results of this consultation are summarised in Local Plan Survey 5 (LPS5) at the bottom of this page.

April/May 2005 - Initial Options 

A further consultation to develop what is referred to as the 'initial options' was undertaken. The results of this are summarised in LPS6 at the bottom of this page. Initial options capture the views of the general public and stakeholders as to what they think should be included within a planning policy.

Following this consultation, the Council produced a draft version of the Statement of Community Involvement. 

In this draft the Council outlined its preferred ways to increase involvement in the planning process by all interested parties and incorporated the views received in the earlier consultations.

July/August 2005 - Preferred Options

The draft version of the Statement of Community Involvement, attached at the botom of this page, was made available to the general public for comment over a period of 6 weeks.

A total of 51 responses were received on the draft SCI.  A report of this consultation showing the comments received and the Council's response to these can be found in Local Plan Survey 7 (attached at the bottom of this page). The comments were used to help write the final draft of the SCI.  This is called the Submission Document.

November 2005/ January 2006 - Submission of the SCI

The Submission Draft SCI document was submitted to the Secretary of State for Independent Examination. A copy of this document is also available at the bottom of this page along with the statutory 'Statement of DPD Matters' and a public notice which was published in local newspapers. A pre-submission (regulation 28) statement of consultation also accompanies this which sets out how we put together the submission draft of the Statement of Community Involvement.

At this time the Submission Statement of Community Involvement was subject to a six week consultation period.  This ran from 30th November 2005 to midday on 11th January 2006. The results from this are available from the Submission SCI comments page.

May 2006 - Examination of the SCI by a Planning Inspector

An Inspector from the Planning Inspectorate was be appointed by the Secretary of State to carry out an Independent Examination. The Inspector considered all representations received during the above consultation period and tested the document for 'soundness'.

November/December 2006 - Adoption of the SCI

The Council received the Inspector's binding Report on its Statement of Community Involvement in November 2006, and the SCI was amended to take account of a small number of changes that he recommended.  Full Council - a meeting of all Council Members - on 30th November 2006 recommended that this version was adopted from 1st December 2006. A copy of the adopted SCI can be found on the Community Involvement (SCI) page.