Central Lancashire Local Plan Regulation 19 Representation Period

Closes 14 Apr 2025

Opened 24 Feb 2025

Contact

Central Lancashire Local Plan Team

01772 625625

centrallancashireplan@chorley.gov.uk

Overview

The Central Lancashire Authorities of Chorley, Preston and South Ribble are consulting on the new Central Lancashire Local Plan. The Plan will decide where new homes and workplaces will be built and will support the growth of Central Lancashire up to 2041. When it is adopted, the Plan will be used to help make decisions on planning applications in Central Lancashire.

Central Lancashire Local Plan 2023-2041: Publication Draft

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Please note representations made at this stage in the process cannot remain anonymous, but details will only be used in relation to the statutory function of Local Plan preparation.

All representations will be sent to the Planning Inspectorate and made available to view online as part of the Central Lancashire Local Plan 2023-2041 examination process. Please note that copies of the comments received will be available for the public to view and cannot be treated as confidential. Data will be processed and held in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation. Please see separate Guidance Notes for further details in respect of data protection.

More information about the Central Lancashire Local Plan can be found from: www.centrallocalplan.lancashire.gov.uk/

You are invited to submit your representations to the consultation which opens on Monday 24th of February 2025 at 2pm and closes on Monday 14th April 2025 at midnight.

In accordance with Regulation 19 of the Town and Country Planning (Local Planning) (England) Regulations 2012 representations are invited on the publication version of the Central Lancashire Local Plan 2023 - 2041.

Representations should focus on whether it is legally compliant and meets the tests of 'soundness' as set out in the National Planning Framework (NPPF) Paragraph 36, referring to specific policies wherever possible.

Find out more about the plan making process, legal compliance and tests of soundness:

The Plan will be examined to consider whether it:

  • Complies with the relevant legal requirements, including the duty to cooperate; and
  • Is sound, as set out in the National Planning Policy Framework.

A more detailed explanation about legal compliance and soundness is set out below.

Legal Compliance, including duty to cooperate

You should consider the following before making a representation on legal compliance: 

  • The Plan should be included in the current Local Development Scheme (LDS) and the key stages set out in the LDS should have been followed. The LDS is effectively a programme of work prepared by the council, setting out different planning policy documents it proposed to produce over a three year period.
  • The process of community involvement for the Plan should be in general accordance with the council’s Statement of Community Involvement (SCI). The SCI sets out the council’s strategy for involving the community in the preparation and revision of planning policy documents and the consideration of planning applications.
  • A Sustainability Appraisal (SA) of the Plan should have been carried out and the SA published. The SA report should identify the process by which SA has been carried out, and the baseline information used to inform the process and the outcomes of that process. SA is a tool for assessing the extent to which the Plan, when judged against reasonable alternatives, will help to achieve relevant environmental, economic and social objectives.
  • The Plan should comply with all other relevant requirements of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 (as amended), and the Town and Country Planning (Local Planning) (England) Regulations 2012 (as amended).

You should consider the following before making a representation on compliance with the duty to cooperate:

  • Section 33A of the PCPA 2004 (as amended) requires the council to engage constructively, actively and on an ongoing basis with neighbouring authorities and certain other bodies over strategic matters during the preparation of the Plan. The council will be expected to provide evidence of how they have complied with the duty.
  • Non-compliance with the duty to cooperate cannot be rectified after the submission of the Plan. Therefore, the Planning Inspector has no power to recommend modifications in this regard. Where the duty has not been complied with, the Planning Inspector cannot recommend adoption of the plan.

Soundness
Soundness is defined in the National Planning Policy Framework.  Plans are considered sound if they are:

  • Positively prepared – providing a strategy which, as a minimum, seeks to meet Central Lancashire’s objectively assessed needs; and is informed by agreements with other authorities, so that unmet need from neighbouring areas is accommodated where it is practical to do so and is consistent with achieving sustainable development;
  • Justified – an appropriate strategy, taking into account the reasonable alternatives, and based on proportionate evidence;
  • Effective – deliverable over the plan period, and based on effective joint working on cross-boundary strategic matters that have been dealt with rather than deferred, as evidenced by the statement of common ground; and
  • Consistent with national policy – enabling the delivery of sustainable development in accordance with the policies in this Framework and other statements of national planning policy, where relevant.

If you think the content of the Plan is not sound because it does not include a policy on a particular issue, you should go through the following steps before making representations:

  • Is the issue with which you are concerned already covered specifically by national planning policy?
  • Is the issue with which you are concerned already covered by another policy in this plan?
  • If the policy is not covered elsewhere, in what way is the plan unsound without the policy?
  • If the plan is unsound without the policy, what should the policy say?

Please note

In your representation you should summarise succinctly all the evidence and supporting information necessary to support your representation and your suggested modification(s). You should not assume that you will have a further opportunity to make submissions.

After this stage, further submissions may only be made if invited by the Inspector, based on the matters and issues they identify for examination.

Please note that late representations will not be accepted as duly made. Representations can be submitted via this online response form or alternatively you can download and complete a response form from here , and this can be returned to us by email or post.

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