This consultation is now closed
We have made all comments submitted in this consultation available via our consultation portal
View the Timeline page in this consultation material for more detail on how we expect this project to progress
Planning decisions in Bath and North East Somerset are guided by National and local Planning Policy. You can view national policy in the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) and call our local planning policy The Local Plan. The two Local Plan documents which guide development the district are the Core Strategy (2014) and Placemaking Plan (2017).
The wider council policy context
As a council, we declared a Climate Emergency in March 2019, and an Ecological Emergency in July 2019, pledging to become carbon neutral by 2030. We agreed our current planning framework in 2014, and so are now in the process of updating our planning policies, to reflect these environmental commitments.
Read more about our work on the Climate Emergency
The Planning policy context
We have to review the Local Plan every five years, to determine whether it remains fit for purpose, or whether we need to update all or part of it. There will be a full review of the Local Plan alongside the West of England Combined Authority Spatial Development Strategy (SDS) in 2023. Therefore, we are making a Partial Update of the Local Plan, to address a number of urgent issues.
There is a legal framework that we have to follow to change the Local Plan. This involves rounds of public consultation, and finally an examination in public by the Secretary of State. View more detail on the Plan adoption timeline.
Following our previous consultation on the Local Plan Options (Regulation 18), and acting on the public feedback this generated, we have now progressed the Local Plan to the next formal stage. This is called the Regulation 19 (Publication) Local Plan, and is the document that we will submit to the Secretary of State for Examination in Public. If it is approved, we are seeking to adopt this version, as the future framework for decision making on planning until the new Local Plan is adopted in 2024.