The Town and Country Planning (Local Planning) (England) Regulations 2012

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

Part 2 of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 (“the Act”) established a system of local development planning in England. These Regulations make provision for the operation of that system.

Section 33A of the Act imposes a duty to co-operate in relation to planning of sustainable development. The Regulations prescribe the bodies (in addition to local planning authorities and county councils) which are subject to this duty to co-operate (regulation 4).

Part 2 of the Act makes provision in relation to the local plan and supplementary planning documents. Parts 4 and 5 of the Regulations prescribe the form and content of local plans and supplementary planning documents (to be prepared by local planning authorities) and prescribes which documents are to be local plans. The Regulations also prescribe the process for preparation of the local plans and supplementary planning documents.

The main steps in the supplementary planning document procedure are publication of the supplementary planning document, consultation on it and consideration of representations made (regulations 12 and 13) followed by the adoption of the supplementary planning document by the local planning authority (regulation 14). The Regulations also include provisions as to the withdrawal or revocation of supplementary planning documents (regulation 15) and the intervention of the Secretary of State in the supplementary planning document preparation process (regulations 16).

The main steps in the local plan procedure are-

(a)

publication of the proposals for a local plan, consultation on it and consideration of representations (regulations 18 to 20);

(b)

submission to the Secretary of State, independent examination of the local plan and publication of the recommendations of the person appointed to examine the local plan (regulations 22 to 25); and

(c)

adoption of the local plan by the local planning authority (regulation 26).

The Regulations also include provisions as to the withdrawal or revocation of local plans (regulations 27 and 28), the intervention of the Secretary of State in the local plan preparation process (regulation 30 and Schedule 1) and the Secretary of State's default power in relation to the preparation of local plans (regulation 31 and Schedule 2).

The Regulations also make provision in relation to joint development documents, including withdrawal from such a document by a local planning authority or the dissolution of a joint committee (regulations 32 and 33).

The Regulations also make provision in relation to the content of monitoring reports which local planning authorities must prepare (regulation 34),

The Regulations also make general provision as to the availability of documents and copies of documents (regulations 35 and 36).

The Regulations revoke—

(a)

M1 the Town and Country Planning (Local Development) (England) Regulations 2004 ;

(b)

M2 the Town and Country Planning (Local Development) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2008 ;

(c)

M3 the Town and Country Planning (Local Development) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2009 ; and

(d)

M4 article 4 of the Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Act 2009 (Consequential Amendments)(England) Order 2010 ;

(e)

M5 paragraph 17 of Schedule 4 to the Waste (England and Wales) Regulations 2011 ; and

(f)

M6 regulation 20 of Local Policing Bodies (Consequential Amendments) Regulations 2011 .

The Regulations also make saving provision so things done by a local planning authority (or the Secretary of State) under the Town and Country Planning (Local Development) (England) Regulations 2004 are treated as done under the corresponding provision of these Regulations. This is to allow plans which were in the process of being prepared when the 2004 Regulations were revoked could continue that process under these Regulations (regulation 38).

The Regulations apply to county councils for the purposes of minerals and waste development planning as they apply to local planning authorities for local planning purposes (regulation 2(3)).

An impact assessment has been prepared for the Localism Act 2011, the Local Plan Reform Impact Assessment, which has been deposited in the Library of each House of Parliament and is available from the Department for Communities and Local Government, Eland House, Bressenden Place, London SW1E 5DU or from the Department's website

(http://www.communities.gov.uk/publications/localgovernment/localismlocalplanreform)