We want to ensure that residents, businesses and other stakeholders have an opportunity to comment on the Local Plan, and shape what it contains.
The plan-making process includes two further consultations prior to the plan being submitted for examination:
- June 2027: Consultation on ‘Proposed Plan content and evidence’
- April 2028: Consultation on ‘Proposed Local Plan’
Anyone can make written representations at each of these stages, and participate in additional engagement activity taking place as part of these consultation stages.
The consultation material will be published on our website and made available in hard copy at the Civic Offices in Addlestone, and in other community facilities such as libraries across the Runnymede area.
Statutory consultees, and other organisations and individuals on our Planning Policy Consultation Database, will be automatically notified of these consultations.
In addition, we will publicise the consultations using social media (such as Facebook and LinkedIn), on noticeboards, through relevant Council communications and printed materials, and through press releases sent to local media.
The Council has drafted a Local Plan Engagement Strategy which analyses the demographic make-up of the Runnymede area, identifies its ‘hard-to-reach’ and historically underrepresented groups, and sets out ways of engaging with these groups and other stakeholders throughout the plan-making process. The aim of the strategy is to maximise involvement in the preparation of the new Local Plan:
The Council has also prepared a Strategic Cross-boundary Scoping Statement, describing how we intend to maintain effective cooperation addressing cross-boundary issues affecting Runnymede. It outlines which bodies we are proposing to engage with, on what topics, and the ways in which we propose to engage with these bodies.
The Government is promoting a ‘digital-first’ plan-making system to help reduce the time it takes to produce local plans. We would therefore like written comments to be submitted online through our local plan engagement software wherever possible. This allows a much larger number of responses to be analysed more quickly.
However, we still plan to hold meetings and correspond with key stakeholders in the usual way throughout the plan-making process. This will help enable cooperation with other plan-making bodies, and support the development of a robust evidence base.
The following questions about this topic are included on the response form:
Q33: Are there other ways we should publicise the Local Plan consultations?
Q34: Is there a group or community you are aware of that find it harder to participate? If so, what steps could we take to help those groups engage?
Q35: Do you agree that our Strategic Cross-boundary Scoping Statement identifies relevant strategic matters and sets out the correct consultees and approach for engagement on these matters? If not, please explain why.
Q36: Are there any other comments you wish to make about how you would like us to engage with you during the preparation of the Local Plan?
Q37: Do you have any other views on what the new Plan should contain, which have not been covered elsewhere in the consultation?
Next page - Questions, response form and full scoping document
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