The Statement of Community Involvement (SCI) is a statutory document which sets out how and when the Council will engage with stakeholders and the wider community to ensure that everyone can participate in the planning process. This includes both the preparation of policy documents and the determination of planning applications. The SCI also sets out how and when the Council will support local communities in preparing Neighbourhood Plans.
It details which documents require public involvement and how and at what stage there are opportunities to be involved. It also sets out how we will notify and consult all interested groups and ensure equality of engagement.
Following a 6-week consultation, the SCI was adopted by the Council on 31 January 2022. This latest version updates and supersedes the previous SCI which was adopted on 18 December 2018.
This updated SCI sets out how the Council will involve the community during the production of the New Local Plan 2019-2039. In addition to identifying the Council’s statutory consultation requirements, the updated SCI provides a higher level of detail in respect of how early engagement will be undertaken, as well where the Council will carry out informal engagement. The SCI also has regard to the increased scope of engagement that has recently become available through new online platforms. Other updates include the incorporation of the changes made since 2018 to the public speaking processes at Planning Committee.
Since the adoption of the SCI in January 2022, any temporary measures regarding public consultation and involvement made necessary by the Coronavirus pandemic are now obsolete in accordance with the Government’s Planning Policy Guidance. These temporary measures were set out in the Council’s Coronavirus Addendum to the SCI. Any obsolete text that refers to these temporary measures has now been struckthrough in the SCI. The Coronavirus Addendum has been removed from this webpage.
