Draft Local Plan to be considered by Wealden Council early next year

A special meeting of Full Council will be held on Thursday, February 8, when councillors will consider the plan with the formal Regulation 18 consultation taking place in the weeks after the meeting.

The new Local Plan will help WDC guide development over the next 15-20 years.

Work on the forthcoming Local Plan consultation was paused in 2022 due to confirmation that the government was proposing to bring forward a series of changes to the national planning system, both through legislation and changes to the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF).

While there has been some progress with the Levelling Up and Regeneration Act gaining Royal Assent, many of its provisions for the planning system rely on yet to be defined secondary legislation or changes to the NPPF, for which no firm date for publication has been set.

As WDC needs to officially update the timetable for the Local Plan, the date for the meeting in the new year has been set.

Alliance for Wealden (Green Party) and lead councillor for planning and environment Ian Tysh said: “The council’s commitment to a new Local Plan is strong. We want a Local Plan to help ensure that development can be managed in accordance with strong innovative policies around climate change, the built and natural environment, biodiversity net gain, our local economy, housing standards and more besides.

“Preparing our Local Plan with the uncertainty caused by national changes is complex and not without risk, however there are also risks associated with not progressing with our Local Plan.”

He added: “This is, of course, subject to the potential publication of any update to the NPPF and the extent and direction of the final changes. However, we are clear that we want our plan to proceed. Our intention, so far as possible, is to resolve any potential tensions between our draft Local Plan and any updated NPPF between Regulation 18 and 19 and [to] not further delay our plan.”

People wishing to receive updates about the draft Local Plan and to take part in the consultation process are asked to register on WDC’s consultation portal at https://consult.wealden.gov.uk/kse/