The consultation period has now closed and residents' responses will be factored into the MVDC’s decision-making over the next few months as the Council prepares the next draft of the Local Plan, which will include its preferred development sites.

In addition to issues raised by residents, decisions on which sites to include will involve detailed discussions with infrastructure providers to ensure that the necessary infrastructure can be put in place to meet the additional demand arising from the house-building. Ideally, all infrastructure issues will have to have been resolved prior to submitting the Local Plan to the Planning Inspector to avoid protracted discussion during the examination process.

The next draft of the Plan is scheduled to go out to consultation towards the end of the year, assuming that there are no delays arising from the coronavirus crisis and that the Council does not decide to make major changes to the Plan that could take us all back to the beginning of the process.

Providing that the process stays on track, the responses to the next draft of the Plan will be sent straight to the Planning Inspector along with the draft Plan and all evidence documents including previous consultations.

The ARA made a comprehensive response to the original draft plan and this is available to read here (PDF File 485Kbs - 43 pages)