Issue - meetings

The Executive Member for Planning and Growth said a Statement of Community Involvement, or an SCI, was an evolving document that must be updated at least every 5 years to meet the Planning and Compulsory Act 2004 (as amended). She said that an SCI simply set out how the council will consult with the public on planning matters.

Members were advised that the previous SCI was adopted in 2019, and this report sought adoption of an updated version, as detailed in Appendix A of the report. The review of the SCI provided an opportunity to update the document to align with the Council’s current priorities, policies, objectives and procedures.

The Executive Member for Planning and Growth said that the SCI aligned with the LEAF priorities in the Council’s corporate plan and the Council’s core value of being a listening council. These were both particularly pertinent to the SCI as they provided a strong focus on the Council being open and transparent whilst promoting listening and engaging with the community in a fair and inclusive way.

The Executive Member for Planning and Growth said that the updated SCI provided ways for the council to achieve that within the planning context. The update also included the changes to the constitution regarding planning matters as agreed in February 2025. She said that the Levelling Up and Regeneration Act 2023 had several implications for planning, with many details however still  to be set out via secondary legislation.

The Executive Member for Planning and Growth said that the update to the SCI reflected current knowledge of the legislation and allowed for transition to meet the new requirements once further information was released.

Members were advised that the updated SCI now aligned with the process set out in the timetable to produce the District Plan within the Council’s local development scheme.

The Executive Member for Planning and Growth said that the main changes were set out within the report. In summary, this included more information on the principles of consultation and how the council would implement those principles within planning engagement. There would also be more details in respect of consultation methods and how digital technology maybe used within the planning consultations to help make them more accessible and efficient.

The Executive Member for Planning and Growth said that there would be an engagement strategy template to support preparation of planning policy consultations. She said that there would be new section for neighbourhood plan reviews explaining how that process worked and how communities could get involved.

The Executive Member for Planning and Growth said that an equalities impact assessment could be found in appendix B to the report and this assessed the impacts the updated SCI would have to different groups in the communities.

The Executive Member for Planning and Growth said that once adopted, the SCI before Members would replace the October 2019 version and would be published on website.

Councillor Glover-Ward proposed that the recommendation in the report be supported. Councillor Swainston seconded the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 127

The Executive Member for Planning and Growth presented the update on the Statement of Community Involvement (SCI) which was updated every five years. The SCI set out how the council would consult with the public on planning matters and the revised version aligned with the council's LEAF priorities. She said that the Levelling Up and Regeneration Act 2023 would bring several implications for planning with many details to be set out in secondary legislation and the SCI allowed for this transition to meet any new requirements when details emerged.

Councillor Glover-Ward proposed that the recommendations in the report be supported. Councillor Wilson seconded the proposal.

Councillor Estop asked if there would be some provision for translating the big strategic studies into formats and ways the public could understand.

Councillor Glover-Ward said she could discuss this with the Executive Member for Resident Engagement but creating a synopsis from large documents would take a considerable amount of officer time.

Councillor Crystall suggested this could be a job for AI.

The Principal Planning Policy Officer said that one of the principles within the SCI was to avoid planning jargon and making digital technology more prevalent in planning was on the government’s radar.

Councillor Crystall said that table 6.1 on page 223 showed an excellent summary of consultation methods.

The motion to support the recommendations having been proposed and seconded was put to the meeting and upon a vote being taken, was declared CARRIED.

RESOLVED – To recommend to Council that the Statement of Community Involvement 2025, as detailed at Appendix A to this report, be approved for adoption.