Local Plans focus on future unitaries
More Hampshire councils are focusing their Local Plans on the areas covered by the new unitaries following Local Government Reorganisation.
In May, EHDC announced that we would not submit a local plan by the Government’s deadline of 31 December 2026.
Leader Cllr Richard Millard said a host of new planning rules, combined with the recent decision on LGR meant continuing with a Local Plan would be ‘pointless and unjustifiable’.
And other councils are taking similar steps. In June Winchester City Council announced it would collaborate with neighbouring authorities in the future Mid-Hampshire council on a future Local Plan.
And this week another of EHDC’s new partners in the Mid-Hampshire unitary, Test Valley Borough Council, has announced it will change its approach to preparing a Local Plan to the new plan-making system, citing the context of ‘significant challenges’ and ‘local government reorganisation and devolution’.
Cllr Millard said: “In May, we took the decisive step of informing the Government that we would refocus our planning work on the new council area that is due to be established in 2028.
“This approach involves the district councils that will form the proposed Mid-Hampshire unitary authority working together in a coordinated and forward-thinking way.
“We have repeatedly called on the Government to provide greater clarity on how councils going through Local Government Reorganisation are expected to prepare plans for existing boundaries that will soon cease to exist, using guidance that is likely to become outdated. We are still awaiting that clarification.
“It is therefore not surprising that other councils are reaching similar conclusions. I am pleased to see that others are choosing to focus their energies on the new unitary, rather than persist with the legacy planning system, which would mean continuing to invest time and resources in plans that may become quickly obsolete.”