Sandwell Local Plan - Reg 19 Publication

Consultation Information – Sandwell Local Plan (SLP)

Regulation 19 of the Town and Country Planning (Local Planning) (England) Regulations 2012 requires that a copy of each of the proposed local plan submission documents and a statement of the representation procedure be made available. The publication of the Regulation 19 Submission Local Plan update is not itself a consultation stage. Rather it is the point at which the council publishes updated local plan policies that it intends to adopt, having been informed by the public response to the earlier Regulation 18 consultation and engagement.

It will seek further representations under Regulation 20 of the same Act. This stage sets out the final draft version of the local plan prior to its submission to the Secretary of State and involves a public consultation on the legal compliance and 'soundness' of the plan. Any subsequent representations made to it will be considered by the Inspector directly, rather than by the council.

A representation should provide the evidence and information necessary to support or justify what it says. It should spell out clearly any modification to the local plan that in the view of the respondent would be needed to make the plan sound.

Sandwell Council is therefore making the updated Sandwell Local Plan (SLP) available to the public and other interested parties and inviting representations on its soundness. Any representations received will be passed to the Inspector as part of the forthcoming examination, rather than dealt with by the Council. This iteration of the SLP is the one that the Council intends to submit to the Planning Inspectorate for examination in late 2024 / early 2025.

Soundness

Comments received at this stage should specifically relate to whether the Plan is:

• Sound – has the plan been positively prepared, and is it justified, effective, and consistent with national policy?^[1]
• Legally compliant – does the plan meet the legal requirements set out under various statutes?
• Meets the duty to co-operate – has the council engaged and worked effectively with neighbouring authorities and statutory bodies?

If you wish to make a representation seeking a modification to the Local Plan you should make it clear why you think the plan is unsound, having regard to the four underlined tests of soundness above. Relevant evidence showing why the SLP needs modification and any wording or other changes that you think would make the SLP sound should also be supplied.

As a general rule:

• If you are concerned about the way in which the Council has gone about preparing the SLP, your representation is likely to relate to a matter of legal compliance or the Duty to Co-operate.
• If you are concerned about the contents of the SLP, such as the way a policy is worded or a site that has been allocated for development, your representation is likely to relate to its soundness.

Once the plan has been submitted to the Inspectorate, further changes may only be made in accordance with section 23 of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act (2004). This allows main modifications to be made only if they are necessary to make the plan sound and / or legally compliant, provided that the Council has formally requested that such modifications be recommended by the Inspector.

The Council may also make additional (minor) modifications to the plan on adoption, but only if they do not materially affect the plan's policies. Additional modifications are not subject to the formal examination process.

All consultation documents are available to view on the Sandwell website at:

https://www.sandwell.gov.uk/planning/sandwell-local-plan

Printed copies of the Regulation 19 Plan and some supporting documents are available to view in the reception areas of key Council buildings and public libraries. Further details can be found on the Sandwell Local Plan website and any queries can be submitted by email or telephone:

• Phone - 0121 569 4054
• Email - Sandwell_LocalPlan@sandwell.gov.uk

How to respond to this consultation

To give us your views, wherever possible please use the interactive online consultation document available on the webpage as this is the easiest way for you to view the Plan and make your comments. If this is not suitable, you can download a copy of the comment form as a Word document or PDF, to be completed and emailed back to us or printed off and posted instead.

If you are commenting on more than one section of the SLP, please ensure that you identify clearly the topic, paragraph, policy and / or appendix that your comment relates to for each separate representation you make. It is vital that the Inspector knows exactly what part of the SLP you are commenting on / objecting to.

If your written or emailed representation does cover multiple topics, policies, paragraphs or tests of soundness it is important that you submit a separate page for each matter. You only need to submit your contact details once, but please ensure that you include your name or the name of the organisation you represent on each additional page you submit so we can identify quickly and accurately who has responded to which matter.

Any responses received containing comments that are inflammatory, offensive or otherwise inappropriate will be rejected and will not be published. On occasion, rejected comments may be redacted from the rest of a submission in those instances where this approach is considered to be appropriate.

Please send your comments to us in writing by Monday 4^th November 2024 at 17.00hrs.

Any comments received after this date and time cannot be accepted as they will not have been duly made.

Data Protection and Privacy

We are unable to accept anonymous representations:

• We will not publish your personal contact details, such as your home address, telephone number or email address, or any other potentially identifying details – these will all be redacted - but your name and the comments you have made will be available for others to see as part of the public consultation process.
• We will share responses including your contact details with the Planning Inspectorate as part of the statutory process of examination. Again, your personal information will not be made public.

Please note that we will not formally acknowledge or reply to responses and will only contact you if we need further clarification. Your details will be held on our database in accord with the provisions of the Data Protection Act 1998 and you will be contacted again at subsequent stages of the local plan process unless you explicitly tell us that you do not wish to be involved any further.

You can also ask to be notified specifically about the subsequent adoption of the Local Plan.

Additional Support

Please let us know if you have any accessibility issues and wherever we can, we will make additional documents available to accommodate your requirements.