Local Plan won’t be published until end of year

PROGRESS is continuing to be made on Warrington’s Local Plan, according to the borough council.

The authority is currently working to deliver its draft Local Plan – which sets out the proposed approach to meeting the borough’s future need for homes, jobs and supporting infrastructure.
But the council must now take into consideration recent changes to planning rules, as well as updated population projections – which means it will be next year before the plan is published
The Government has just published the revised National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), and the Office for National Statistics has recently released the latest population projections for Warrington.
The council needs to ensure both of these are taken into account in the drafting of the plan.
It is now anticipated that the draft Local Plan will be published at the end of this year prior to a further round of public consultation early next year.
Originally it was hoped the Local Plan would be published this autumn.
Council leader Cllr Terry O’Neill said “We are making good progress in the delivery of our Local Plan, but we now need to consider the new population forecasts, as well as changes to planning policy, so that we get this plan right. We’ll be working hard to achieve this over the coming months.”
The latest population projections – based on mid-2017 – show Warrington with a four per cent increase to 209,700.
Council chiefs are having to study almost 4,000 representations made to the Local Plan Preferred Development Options – the precursor to the Local Plan itself.