Statement of Community Involvement

We are consulting on new versions of our Statement of Community Involvement (SCI) and Development Consultation Charter (DCC).

We want to hear from as many people as possible on how we can continue to improve both documents so that we can continue to improve and enhance the planning experience for the community.

Both documents were approved for consultation at the 7 December 2021 Cabinet meeting.

Draft Statement of Community Involvement (December 2021)

The Statement of Community Involvement is an important planning document that defines how and when local residents, community groups and stakeholders can be involved in the planning process; both when new planning policy documents are prepared or when consultation is carried out on planning applications for new development.

We want to ensure that all those who live, work, study, worship and volunteer in the borough can be involved in local planning decisions and have the opportunity to collaborate on the preparation of our plans and strategies that shape the places in our borough.

The new draft SCI has been informed by the engagement principles set out in the council's Approach to Community Engagement ^{(pdf, 1.8mb)}. 

Draft Development Consultation Charter (December 2021)

As part of SCI, the new draft Development Consultation Charter sets out how members of the community can expect to be consulted by applicants/developers at different stages of the planning application process. In particular, new consultation requirements that must be carried out before an application has been submitted to the council. The requirements of the DCC will be used in the validation of pre-application requests and planning applications for major and strategic applications.

These consultation requirements also extend to council-led development.

Consultation

Public consultation is from 14 December 2021 to 23 March 2022.

You can submit your comments using the Consultation Hub.

We're consulting on the following documents:

• Statement of Community Involvement (SCI) (December 2021) ^{(pdf, 1.5mb)}
• Development Consultation Charter (DCC) (December 2021) ^{(pdf, 391kb)}
• Consultation Plan ^{(pdf, 463kb)}
• Consultation Report ^{(pdf, 415kb)}
• Equalities Impact Assessment (EQIA)  ^{(pdf, 516kb)}
• Cabinet Report (7 December 2021) ^{(pdf, 301kb)}

Current SCI

The current SCI was adopted in 2008 and can be found below:

• Statement of Community Involvement (2008) ^{(pdf, 856kb)}

Please note, parts of the council’s decision making process as set out in the SCI has since been superseded by the council’s constitution. This includes decisions on planning applications, release of Section 106 monies and designation of conservation areas determined at planning committee and planning sub-committees. View details of these decision making processes here.

Page last updated: 31 January 2022