Local plans must be consistent with national policy but can also take on board local planning issues that are important to Maidstone.
The adopted Maidstone Borough Local Plan provides a framework for development until 2031. It plans for homes, jobs, shopping, leisure and the environment, and provides infrastructure to support these. The plan was formally adopted at Full Council on 25 October 2017.
The Local Plan Review will ensure that the Local Plan remains up to date.
We're required by government to prepare a Local Development Scheme (LDS). A LDS sets out the timetable for the delivery of planning policy documents like our Local Plan.
We adopted our Local Plan in October 2017 and intend to review it. The LDS sets out the timetable for our Local Plan Review.
The Local Development Scheme 2018 - 2022 which was as approved by Full Council on 18th July 2018 has been amended. The revised Local Development Scheme 2020 – 2022 was approved by Full Council on 15th July 2020 and took effect the same day. The LDS 2018 – 2022 outlined that a preferred approaches consultation was to take place in February to March 2020. However, due to the number of responses to the Call for Sites exercise and the significance of responses to the scoping, themes and issues consultation, there will now be a staged approach to the preferred approaches consultation. The first stage is to consult on the key growth strategies in October 2020. Then consideration is given to more detailed topic areas in February 2021. The revised LDS is located here.
The public notice can be viewed here.
The Council is currently complying with the timetable.
The Statement of Community Involvement 2018 sets out when and how stakeholders and the local community can get involved in the preparation of local plans, neighbourhood development plans and supplementary planning documents, and be involved in the process of decision making on planning applications.
There is an addendum for this document which can be viewed here.
There is a temporary addendum in relation to Covid 19 which can be viewed here.
The Sustainability Appraisal assessment process communicates significant sustainability issues and effects of emerging plans and policies. The appraisal informs the plan-making process by helping refine the contents of documents. This will help maximise the benefits of sustainable development to avoid or minimise adverse effects.
A Scoping Report has been produced to provide context and determine the scope of the Sustainability Appraisal. It sets out the assessment framework for undertaking the later stages of the Sustainability Appraisal.
The report has been published for consultation to the bodies of Historic England, Natural England and the Environment Agency. The consultation will run for 5 weeks between 4 February 2019 and 11 March 2019.cx
The authority monitoring report (AMR) for Maidstone provides a framework with which to monitor and review the effectiveness of Local Plan Policies.
The Call for Sites has now closed, and we are assessing the sites for inclusion within a consultation draft of the Local Plan. Sites submitted to the council after 1st March 2020 will not be included in the Preferred Options consultation document. The next opportunity to submit a new/alternative site, or comment upon sites will be during the next public consultation in late 2020. For more information visit our Call for Sites page.
The Sports Facilities Strategy and the Playing Pitch Strategy form part of the evidence base for the Local Plan Review. The strategies were presented and approved at the Strategic Planning, Sustainability and Transportation Committee.
You can read the strategies, including stakeholder and members actions and comments below:
Between 19th July 2019 and 30th September 2019 we consulted on the Local Plan Review Scoping, Themes and Issues (Regulation 18a). .
The next consultation, Preferred Approaches (Regulation 18b) for the Local Plan Review is due to be held in October 2020.