It is the intention of the new development plan
system that consultation takes place earlier in the plan making
process. The County Council must produce a 'Statement of
Community Involvement' (SCI) to explain how it will engage the
community in the production of its plans. Initial consultation on
the SCI took place in January 2005, and further six-week periods of
consultation on a revised draft version was undertaken with a range
of organisations between April and June 2005 and August and
September 2005. The comments and views from consultees who
responded were considered and, where judged relevant and
appropriate, incorporated in the submission version of the
SCI.
This final version of the SCI was submitted to the Secretary of
State for independent examination in October 2005. Before the
examination took place, there was a six-week consultation period
(from 10 October to 21 November 2005) for any representations to be
made on whether the SCI failed any of the nine 'soundness' tests
set out in paragraph 3.10 of Planning Policy Statement (PPS) 12:
Local Development Frameworks.
Ten representations were received during the six-week period, and
these representations and the County Council's response to them
were passed on to the Inspector to be considered alongside the
County Council's submission documentation. Several objectors
subsequently submitted further material in support of their
representations, and the County Council responded to these further
submissions (attachments 7 & 8 below).
Following the examination, the Inspector's binding report was
received on 12th April 2006 (attachment 9 below). The Inspector
made 15 recommendations, 14 of which necessitated textual
changes to the SCI. The County Council's Cabinet approved the
SCI for adoption at its meeting on 16 May 2006 (attachment 1
below).
Alongside the SCI itself are four supporting documents, detailing
the results of the initial pre-submission consultation (Regulation
25 stage), pre-submission public participation (Regulation 26
stage), the nine representations received on the submission SCI,
and Suffolk County Council's response to these representations:
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