Statement of Community Involvement

5. Community Involvement in SPDs

5.1 Supplementary Planning Documents (SPDs) are designed to explain or provide further detail on the implementation of policies or site allocations in a Local Plan document. They can include design guides, development briefs, master plans and documents providing guidance on particular issues and the Council will refer to them when making decisions on planning applications or dealing with planning appeals.

5.2 The diagram below sets out the process that the Council is required to undertake when preparing an SPD. Sustainability Appraisal is no longer a requirement for all SPDs and will only be carried out when appropriate. The evidence gathering and preparation stages should include up-front engagement with the community where this would be possible and beneficial.

5.3 Unlike the Local Plan, SPDs do not need to be examined by a Planning Inspector but they do need to be subject of community involvement. The comments submitted by residents and other stakeholders will be taken into account when preparing the final version of the SPD for adoption and a report of the comments received will be published on the Council's website alongside the adopted SPD.

5.4 A full description of the various community involvement methods that the Council might use can be found in Appendix 2 to this document.

Consultation on the Statement of Community Involvement

5.5 The Statement of Community Involvement (SCI) (the document you are reading) needs to be the subject of engagement with the community in its own right. This will operate in a similar way to consultations on Supplementary Planning Documents explained above.