The representation period on the Draft Craven Local Plan has now closed with a total of 64 organisations and individuals submitting comments.

Craven District Council’s Planning Policy team is now preparing for formal submission of the Draft Local Plan to the Secretary of State for examination by March 29, 2018.

It is hoped that the examination of the Local Plan will be organised during the summer of 2018.

David Smurthwaite, Craven District Council’s Strategic Manager, said: “We would like to thank everyone who took time to comment on the soundness of our Draft Local Plan; many of these comments were positive while others have made points which will be addressed during the examination of the plan.

“This was just the latest of many opportunities we have given the public to comment on our draft plan in order to get to this stage. Our Planning Policy team has carried out a huge amount of work on this and is now working hard to prepare the plan for submission.”

The Local Plan examination will consider whether the plan is ‘sound’ and meets the requirements of the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF).

As part of that process the Inspector (appointed by the Secretary of State) will consider representations made on the soundness of the plan by organisations and individuals. At the end of the examination the Inspector will issue a report to Craven District Council containing recommendations relating to any changes that need to be made to the plan to ensure it is sound, before being formally adopted.

In order to manage the day to day arrangements of the examination process before and during the period of the examination Tony Blackburn has been appointed as a Programme Officer. Tony has a wealth of experience in this role at many authorities including Bradford Metropolitan District Council, Wyre and Fylde Borough Councils.

The Planning Policy Team also ran a period of public consultation of the revised Statement of Community Involvement (SCI) at the same time. During this consultation period a total of nine comments were submitted. The next steps are to consider these comments and present to members of Policy Committee prior to the adoption of the revised SCI.

Craven District Council approved the publication of the Draft Local Plan at a meeting on December 19, 2017. Extensive consultation had already been carried out on the Local Plan; the council’s planning policy team considered more than 900 comments made by over 230 people during a consultation in June and July 2017. This followed a number of previous workshops, drop-in events and consultations, which have been taking place since 2012.

The Craven Local Plan sets out how land should be used in the future to achieve economic, environmental and social goals. Policies in a local plan will be used to decide planning applications including housing, retail and employment uses up to 2032.

The draft plan includes a minimum housing requirement of 4,600 net new dwellings during the plan period from 2012 to 2032 - a net annual average of 230 dwellings per year. This figure includes all the dwellings that have been built or given planning permission since 2012.

Whilst the representations period and consultation period have now ended, the Publication Draft Local Plan and supporting documents, and the draft revised SCI are still available to view at www.cravendc.gov.uk/newlocalplan