The draft Local Plan provides the strategy for growth over the next 15 years and includes planning policies against which future development will be assessed. This will help us meet identified needs for new homes, jobs, infrastructure and other supporting services within the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole area; while both respecting and protecting the local areas' best features including the coast, internationally designated environments, Green Belt and areas at present and future risk of flooding.  

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 identified in the local plan.

Examination of the draft Local Plan and Community Infrastructure Levy (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.

The Secretary of State has appointed H Hockenhull BA (Hons) B.PI MRPTI and T Hatfield BA (Hons) MPLAN MRTPI as Planning Inspectors to undertake the examination of the BCP Local Plan. We await announcement of who will be appointed to inspect the draft CIL Charging Schedule.

The Local Plan examination is expected to take around 12 months. If approved by the Inspectors, the Local Plan and CIL draft charging schedule will replace the current Local Plans and charging schedules around the middle of 2025.

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 examinations will focus on the Local Plan and CIL submission documents which includes 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 on where you can view paper copies of the main documents.

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.