The draft Local Plan was prepared to provide a strategy for growth over the next 15 years and included planning policies against which future development would have been assessed.

Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) is a ‘£ per sqm’ charge on new development to fund infrastructure needed to support growth of housing, employment, leisure and transport.

Submission of the draft Local Plan and CIL draft Charging Schedule

We submitted the draft Local Plan and the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) draft charging schedule to the Secretary of State on 27 June 2024 for examination.

Examination of the draft Local Plan and Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) draft Charging Schedule

Part 1 Hearing Sessions into the BCP Local Plan took place on 21 to 23 January 2025 and have now concluded. These sessions focused on compliance with statutory procedures and legal requirements, housing need and the housing requirement.

The Local Plan Inspectors have written a letter to the council recommending that we withdraw the Local Plan, the primary reason being that they consider there was a failure in the duty to cooperate.

We are obviously disappointed by the conclusions of the letter and the Council will now carefully consider its next steps.

Ian Kemp is the Programme Officer for the examinations. Ian is independent from us and works on behalf of the planning inspectors. Ian is the main point of contact for the examination and will provide day to day progress updates on the examination process through his examination page including publication of any correspondence with the Inspectors.

The examination focused on the Local Plan and CIL submission documents which included the draft plans, the representations received during the consultations in Spring 2024 and the supporting evidence base.

The submission statements for the draft Local Plan and CIL draft Charging Schedule provide information.

Consultation on the draft Local Plan and CIL draft Charging Schedule

We consulted on the draft Local Plan from 20 March to 3 May 2024 and the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) draft charging schedule from 25 April to 6 June 2024.

You can find out more about the consultation we held on the draft:

• Local Plan including the feedback
• consultation we held on the CIL Charging Schedule including the feedback

Consultation on BCP Local Plan issues and options

We consulted on the BCP Local Plan issues and options from 10 January to 25 March 2022.

Read more about the Local Plan issues and options consultation.