Introduction to the local plan review

The Government requires all Councils to revisit their Local Plans every five years. We are therefore beginning work on the early stages of the Council’s next Local Plan, which we are aiming to complete by 2022. It will cover the period from 2022-2038

Our current programme covering 2020-2023 is set out in a Local Development Scheme.

Our adopted Statement of Community Involvement sets out how we are going to consult and engage you. There will be various opportunities for you to get involved and over time we will be expanding our website to include these further activities and any evidence that we will have completed.

As part of the Sustainability Appraisal (SA) for the Emerging Local Plan, Swale Borough Council commissioned the consultants AECOM to prepare a Sustainability Appraisal Scoping Report. This report sets out the scope of the Sustainability Appraisal; ie the sustainability issues and objectives that should be the focus of, and provide a methodological framework for the appraisal of the emerging Local Plan. Scoping is the first of the five-stage SA process. The next stage will be the appraisal of reasonable alternatives, which will help inform the preparation and assessment of the draft local plan as it develops. The five stages of the SA process are set out in Chapter 14 (Next Steps) of the SA Scoping Report.

Looking Ahead – our first consultation document

In April 2018 we published a consultation and engagement document ‘Looking ahead’ to give you an early opportunity to shape the scope and content of the next Local Plan. You can view further details on our Current Consultations Page

If you have any questions about any of the information above, please contact localplans@swale.gov.uk or call 01795 417850.