Consultation Draft Statement of Community Involvement 2018

2. Colchester's Approach

Planning Policy

2.1 Colchester Borough Council attaches great importance to undertaking effective consultation with all stakeholders. The type and coverage of plans has evolved over the years but the overall requirement to ensure wide consultation remains. The NPPF and Localism Act 2011 introduced a new tier of planning called Neighbourhood Plans and provided greater flexibility in the requirements for plan preparation. The continuing source of information and progress on all the Council's planning policy documents continues to be the Local Development Scheme, which is available on the Council's website.

2.2 The Local Plan Committee has been established as a sub-committee of Full Council and is open to the public in the same way as other formal council committees. The Committee has responsibility for guiding the Local Plan process and takes decisions on the various documents to be produced. As part of this process they will take account of all consultations.

2.3 The shared strategic Section 1 Local Plan for North Essex includes proposals for three cross boundary Garden Communities; two of which are partially within the Colchester Borough. The Council is committed to producing a separate development plan document (DPD) for each of these Garden Communities. The consultations for the Garden Community plans will need to have regard to the Colchester Borough SCI as well as the SCI's of Braintree and Tendring, where appropriate.

2.4 As part of involving the community in the preparation of planning policy documents Colchester Borough Council will maintain an up to date consultation database so that any individual or organisation who wishes to be informed of the progress of planning policy documents is directly consulted when a document is consulted on. Further information on how the Council will work with the community on planning policy documents is set out in Part 1 of this document. Anyone wishing to be added to the database can do so by emailing planning.policy@colchester.gov.uk.

2.5 Once consultation has taken place on draft planning policy documents, a consultation summary will be produced which will summarise the key points made and provide a response to the issues raised before the document is finalised. This will be published on the Council's website alongside the accompanying committee report.

Duty to Cooperate

2.6 As part of the statutory Duty to Cooperate, neighbouring councils and other relevant organisations must work together on strategic planning issues that affect them all. In accordance with the Town and Country Planning (Local Planning) (England) Regulations 2012, Colchester Borough Council will work together on strategic planning issues with the organisations shown in the following table.

Duty to Cooperate Consultees	Office of Rail and Road
Environment Agency	Highways Agencies
Historic England	Integrated Transport Authorities
Natural England	Highway Authorities
Civil Aviation Authority	Marine Management Organisation
Homes and Communities Agency	Local Enterprise Partnerships
Clinical Commissioning Groups	Neighbouring Local Authorities
NHS England	Essex County Council

Table One – Duty to Cooperate Consultees

2.7 In addition to the above, the Council is required to consult 'specific' and 'general' consultation bodies and other consultees including the community, neighbourhood plan groups, businesses and third sector groups. The following list of organisations will be informed of any consultation being undertaken, as appropriate.

Specific Consultation Bodies	General Consulting Bodies
Neighbouring Local Authorities	Voluntary Bodies
All Parish Councils within and adjoining the boundary of Colchester Borough as appropriate.	Ethnic / Racial / National Groups
Essex Police	Religious Groups and Churches
The Environment Agency	Disabled Groups
Historic England	Local Business Support Agencies
Natural England	Other Consultees
The Secretary of State for Transport	Health Agencies
Electronic Communication Providers	Learning Agencies
Telephone Operators	Schools
Electricity Suppliers	Transport Bodies and Groups
Gas undertakers	Sports Clubs
Sewage Undertakers	Recreation Bodies
The Homes and Communities Agency	Infrastructure and Service Providers
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government	Design, Town Planning, Conservation and Landscape and Nature Conservation Bodies
Marine Management Organisation	Environmental Groups
Network Rail	Planning Consultants and Agents
Highways England	The Development Industry
Public Health England	Other miscellaneous bodies.
Electricity and Gas Suppliers
Sport England

Table Two – Wider Consultees

2.8 The Council will make sufficient resources available in order to meet its statutory responsibilities and the procedures and standards contained within this SCI.

Planning Applications

2.9 As part of notifying the community when a planning application is received, the Council will ensure there is appropriate publicity to enable members of the public to comment on proposals. Further information on how the Council will consult on planning applications is set out in Part 2 of this SCI.