Pre-Submission Consultation Statement
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England Statement of Community Birmingham Wales West Midlands Region Involvement Gloucester Newport South Gloucestershire Cardiff Swindon London Bristol Channel Bristol Pre-Submission Bath South East Region South West Region Southampton Exeter Bournemouth Consultation Statement Plymouth English Channel © Crown Copyright South Gloucestershire 10002341,2006 August 2007 rn e v e S r e iv R Thornbury 8 3 A 5 M 03 4 A M 4 8 4 M 33 A4 M 6 4 4 9 A M 4 432 5 A M Yate 8 8 1 3 0 4 A A 2 3 A4 2 4 174 3 A M A 4 M4 1 7 4 Kingswood 6 Bristol 4 A 0 A420 A42 A420 A4 31 Map reproduced from the Ordnance Survey map with the permission of the Controller H.M. Stationery Office. © Crown Copyright South Gloucestershire 10002341,2006 This information can be made available in other languages, in large print, braille or on audio tape. Please phone 01454 868009 if you need any of these or any other help to access Council services. Designed by South Gloucestershire Council, Design & Print Services ref: 2640/08/07 Tel: 01454 863763 Printed on recycled paper 75% Post Consumer Waste Date of Publication 08/07 Free internet access is available at all South Gloucestershire libraries www.southglos.gov.uk PRE-SUBMISSION CONSULTATION STATEMENT REGULATION 28 (1) (c) STATEMENT AUGUST 2007 1. Introduction 1.1 This statement sets out the pre-submission consultation and community involvement undertaken for the South Gloucestershire Council Statement of Community Involvement (SCI) to comply with Regulation 28 (1) (c) of the Town and Country (Local Development) (England) Regulations 2004. 1.2 The statement explains the consultation undertaken and details of who has been consulted to date; how they were consulted; the issues raised and how these have been addressed in the Submission Draft SCI. 2. Regulation 25 Pre-Production Consultation 2.1 This statement is required by Regulation 28(1)(c) of the Town and Country Planning (Local Development) (England) Regulations 2004. It deals with the process that South Gloucestershire Council has gone through to engage the community with respect to the pre-submission consultation stage (Regulation 25). 2.2 Regulation 25 of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 ensures early consultation for Development Plan Documents (DPDs) and for the SCI. To comply with Regulation 25, letters were sent to the statutory consultation bodies on July 20th 2006 (see Appendix 1 for letter and list of recipients), together with a selection of other stakeholder organisations and developer/planning agents. This letter informed the recipients that South Gloucestershire Council was in the process of embarking on the production of the SCI and asked for comments on how they felt the council could best involve the community in the new planning system. 2.3 At this same time, the Council set up an on-line questionnaire using the iNovem e-consult computer programme. The letter invited the recipients to register with the iNovem system and to complete the questionnaire. The letter made it clear that paper copies of the questionnaire were available if required so as not to prejudice those without easy access to a computer. The informal consultation was to close on September 30th, however this closing date was not to be strictly enforced, with additional time allowed for any comments to be received after this date. A total of 54 people registered on the iNovem system. In addition, a total of six hard-copy questionnaires were requested and returned completed. 2.4 Shortly after this first letter was sent, a further letter was sent out to the same recipients on August 8th 2006, inviting them to attend one of three ‘SCI Workshops’ that were to be held at the following times and venues (see Appendix 2 for letter and list of recipients): • Friday 8th September, Chipping Sodbury Town Hall • Tuesday 26th September, The Park Centre, High Street, Kingswood th • Wednesday 27 September, Greenfield Centre, Winterbourne A total of 42 people attended the three workshops. Missed Consultees 2.5 Several of the statutory bodies that Regulation 25 requires consultation with were missed from the original round of letters that were sent in July 2006. The missed consultees were: • The South West Regional Assembly • Gloucestershire County Council • Wiltshire County Council • Bristol City Council • Bath and North East Somerset Council • North Somerset Council • Cotswolds District Council • Stroud District Council • Forest of Dean Council 2.6 Letters were written to these bodies on 27th October 2006 that were similar in content to the original letters (this letter can be seen in Appendix 3). A hard copy of the questionnaire was included with the letters for the bodies to complete. In addition, on 27th November 2006 the following town and parish councils, which had been omitted from the final pre-consultation stage, were consulted with: • Aylburton Parish Council • Didmarton Parish Council • Tidenham Parish Council The letter that was sent to them can be seen at Appendix 4. 2.7 Although these bodies were consulted at a later date than the other consultees in July 2006, it is considered that they were still afforded adequate opportunity to comment and influence the preparation of the Draft Statement of Community Involvement, in accordance with Regulation 25, as the document was still in production at these times. 2.8 Three responses were received in response to the first ‘missed consultee’ letter: • The South West Regional Assembly wrote to acknowledge Receipt of the letter but made no further comment. • Bath and North East Somerset Council returned a completed hard copy of the questionnaire. • Wiltshire County Council also returned a completed hard copy of the questionnaire. No responses were received from the second ‘missed consultee’ letter. Main Issues raised in the Pre-Production Consultation The Workshops: 2.9 Four clear overall messages came through that were repeated at all three workshops. These were: • Use the ‘community network’ to reach the widest possible audience, i.e. a ‘trickle-down’ approach to informing and engaging the community and raising awareness. • The earlier the consultation and awareness raising is in planning processes the better. • Information provided to raise awareness, inform and engage the community should always be clear and in plain English. • The community needs to be made aware of what is truly at stake at each stage of engagement and consultation in order to encourage them to get involved. The Questionnaires 2.10 The main message that came through was that while use of computer technology for consultation purposes should be increased and consolidated, paper copies of documents and information should still be readily available for those that do not have easy access to the internet. Another issue raised in the questionnaire results was that letters and/or email appear to be the preferred form of correspondence for most of the respondents, with the use of the press and clear and widespread site notices being the best techniques for raising awareness. How these issues were addressed in the Draft SCI at the Regulation 26 Stage 2.11 Several paragraphs and sentences were included in the Draft SCI as a direct result of the questionnaire survey and discussions at the workshops, including paragraphs 2.9, 2.10, 3.4, 4.2, 5.5 and 5.14. The overall tone of the SCI is one that encourages early engagement in planning issues. 3. Regulation 26 Consultation on the Pre-Submission Consultation Draft SCI 3.1 This statement is required by Regulation 28(1)(d) of the Town and Country Planning (Local Development) (England) Regulations 2004. It deals with the process that South Gloucestershire Council went through to advertise the Consultation Draft SCI for consultation under Regulation 26 and the representations that were made to the document under Regulation 27. 3.2 The discussions that took place at the workshops and the results of the online iNovem questionnaire survey, together with best practice examples of adopted SCIs from elsewhere in the country and good practice guidance, were used to inform the preparation of the draft SCI. 3.3 Following the decision of Cabinet on 18th December 2006, the Consultation Draft SCI was then put out to a full public consultation for six weeks from Friday 12th January to Friday 23rd February 2007. To publicise this, letters and emails containing the proposals matters were sent out to around 500 stakeholders to inform them of the consultation, including: • All South Gloucestershire Parish/Town Councils • All neighbouring Parish/Town Councils and Local Authorities/County Councils • GOSW • South West Regional Assembly • The Highways Agency • The Environment Agency • English Heritage • Natural England • The Countryside Agency The full list, together with the letter, can be seen in Appendix 5. 3.4 Press notices were placed in the Bristol Evening Post and the South Gloucestershire Gazette newspapers (see Appendix 6) which both cover the whole of South Gloucestershire. A press release was also made which resulted in a feature also appearing in both the Bristol Evening post and South Gloucestershire Gazette (see Appendix 7). 3.5 Copies of the Draft SCI were sent to all South Gloucestershire Libraries (including the mobile library) and the three One-Stop-Shops (at Yate, Thornbury and Kingswood). All South Gloucestershire Parish and Town Councils were sent two copies of the Draft SCI. Each of the other organisations listed above at para. 3.3 were also sent a copy. The notification letters sent to all consultees said that copies could be sent to them upon request. 3.6 Once again the Council’s iNovem online e-consult system was also utilised. An electronic version of the Draft SCI was put on-line and emails were sent to all those people who had registered on the system during the pre-production phase.