Making your local plan documents publicly available
Draft guidance on how local planning authorities must make their documents available for public inspection.
Applies to England
We will review this guidance and make any necessary revisions and updates as the new system is implemented and related policy is confirmed.
For plans under the legacy plan-making system
If you are submitting your plan under the legacy system, use the create or update a local plan legacy system guidance.
The legacy system covers plans to be adopted under the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004, excluding the amendments made by the LURA, and The Town and Country Planning (Local Planning) (England) Regulations 2012.
How to make your documents available
When preparing your local plan, you will be required to make certain documents available for public inspection. You must:
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publish them on your website or, if you’re preparing a joint local plan, certain documents can be published on a website for the joint plan
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have them available at your main office, and at such other places within your area you consider appropriate, during normal office hours
You must also make certain plan-making information available online following any applicable approved data standards.
Publishing on your website
Consider how easy it is for people to find your local plan documents on your website. You should:
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publish them on a page or section of the website for the local plan
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link them to related planning content on your website
When you publish documents on your website, you should make sure they are:
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‘machine readable’ and in a searchable format, such as a text-based webpage, so computers and people can read and search for words or terms in them
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easy to navigate and accessible to different users
Publishing on a joint local plan website
When preparing a joint local plan, you and the other authorities can decide where you want to make these documents made available. You can make them available on each authority’s individual website or alternatively on a website set up for the joint plan.
However, each authority must publish the following documents on their own website:
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your notice of intention to commence local plan preparation
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if the plan is adopted, the adopted plan and your accompanying adoption statement
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if the plan is withdrawn, your withdrawal statement
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if the plan is revoked (in its entirety) by the Secretary of State, your revocation statement
If you publish a document on a website for the joint local plan, you must also publish details of where you can view the document on your own website. You must publish these details on the same day that you publish the document.
Making documents available at your main office
If you have more than one main office, you will need to consider where you need to make documents available for inspection in keeping with your legal responsibilities.
You will need to consider how you make documents available for inspection. For example, via publicly accessible computers and or by having paper copies available.
You must also make documents available for inspection at such other locations within your area as you consider appropriate. For example, if your authority covers a large area you could consider making documents available at several venues to maximise accessibility.
These could be other public buildings such as a library, customer service centre or community hall. Consider which other public buildings are the most suitable and accessible. For example, does the venue have publicly available computers, and is it easy to access by public transport.
Requests for documents
If someone asks for their own paper copy of a document, you must provide this as soon as is reasonably practicable after receiving the request. You can make a reasonable charge to cover the cost of printing, posting and packaging for such requests.
Accessibility
You will need to consider accessibility needs when providing documents to the public. Make sure you meet your legal obligations for accessibility.