Two questions had been received from a member of the public in accordance with paragraph 17 of Part 2 (The Council and District Council Members) of the Constitution.

Question 1: Mrs Frances White

‘With regard to the feedback given by the community about the DLP consultation process, what changes will SDC put in place for any future consultation, to ensure greater credibility for the Council and the procedure?’

Response: Leader of the Council

The Council added an additional consultation on the draft Local Plan over the summer which ran for 8 weeks. Approximately 8,500 responses were received from organisations and individuals, of course a number of those responses will have been on behalf of more than one individual.

Despite being a non-statutory consultation, we drew up a comprehensive and extensive plan to ensure local people were aware and could comment on the draft local plan.  Clearly this was a success, the council received 8,500 responses.  There were

• Nine public consultation events across the District;
• Media briefing, for all local press, in advance of the consultation;
• News release marking the start of the consultation and flagging up public consultation events sent to media and all town and parish councils;
• Four page pull out feature in the summer issue In Shape, delivered to homes and businesses throughout the District by the Royal Mail;
• Social media

­   two short videos

­   regular social media posts in the run up and throughout the consultation

­   a month-long paid-for social media campaign, targeted at hard to reach groups;

• SDC website, including the homepage for the entire period; and
• Posters and postcard sent to all Town and Parish Councils

The results of the consultation process will be reported to the Council’s Planning Advisory Committee on 22 November and to Cabinet on 6 December 2018. Officers will also seek approval from Cabinet to issue a further iteration of the Local Plan for publication consultation. This is referred to as the ‘Regulation 19 Proposed Submission version’ and will be the final round of public consultation on the Local Plan before it is submitted for examination. 

The consultation responses received to date have informed the content of the emerging Local Plan, alongside the supporting evidence. The production of the Regulation 19 version is on-going and the overall soundness of the document will ultimately be determined by an independent Planning Inspector appointed to chair a public examination process. The results of all public consultations will be set out in Consultation Statement and copies of all responses will be sent to the Inspector when the plan is submitted for examination.

Full details of how to make comments, including a statement setting out the factors that the Inspector will consider in making his or her determination will be posted on the Council’s website in due course. The Council is of the view that it has exceeded the relevant procedural requirements relating to the consultation process to date.  If you consider this not to be the case and/or would like to attend the public examination, please do make this point in response to the Regulation 19 document.

I would add that as a learning council we will always look back on consultations to see if improvements can be made.

Question 2: Mrs Frances White

From Sevenoaks District Council’s experience, of the consultation process thus far (on the Draft Local Plan), at which sites omitted from the Plan do they anticipate/expect/foresee developers and/or their representatives objecting and challenging their decisions.

Response: Leader of the Council

It may well be the case that developers whose sites are not included in the plan attend the examination hearing to argue their case. All those who submit comments on the Regulation 19 version of the plan can indicate that they wish to speak at the hearing sessions. Ultimately, it is for the Inspector to decide who attends.

There was no further discussion.