Stage 2: Public consultation on the draft local plan

What is this stage of local plan making

This stage can be called “Pre-submission” or “Publication” stage. The local plan document is published for a period of six weeks for interested parties to comment before it is submitted to Government.

The local plan will be published on the planning authority’s website and a paper copy will be available at its main office and other suitable venues. The consultation document will now contain the proposed planning policies and site specific proposals.

NB Some authorities are still preparing a local plan in separate planning documents as they had started the process before the current rules came out. They may have one document for their strategic policies eg the Core Strategy and another for their detailed policies eg Development Management policies.

Understanding the draft local plan

If you have not previously been involved in local plan making – look at the “Getting Started” section of the toolkit. You can follow the “does my LPA have planning policies”. Carry out the search on the pre-submission draft using the relevant key words.

The key stages are explained based mainly on policies for food growing. You can repeat this methodology for the other food and planning issues listed on the front page.

What to do if there are policies on the food system

Are the proposed policies the policies that you think are relevant; are they ambitious enough?
Send in a response to the consultation to support the parts of the plan that you like. It is important to support specific policies because there may be others that object. (see Responding to Consultations section of the toolkit). You may want to support some parts and ask for other parts to be strengthened.
Get other like minded organisations or individuals to support/object with a similar message.

What to do if there are no policies for food

Try to find out why. If you have enough time before the deadline for responses try to speak to a planning officer. There may be exhibitions or meetings organised as part of the consultation where you can have a conversation about your interest in using planning as a tool for local food. Don’t be put off!
Submit a case for why planning policies are needed in your area based on local needs and opportunities. (You will find the responding to Issues section of the toolkit useful). Back up your case with local evidence (see evidence section of the toolkit).
Make suggestions for how the local plan should be changed. For example, see if you can get a specific mention for the provision of community food growing space included in any of the published policies. Alternatively you could suggest a stand-alone policy which captures all that you would like.
Get other like minded organisations or individuals to object to the local plan as it is written and ask for policies that will result in a good food environment.

What might policies look like

If you took part in the issues consultation, you will have thought about the policies that you wanted to see. This might have included policies that:

Protect existing community food growing spaces.
Support the provision of new community food growing spaces in or near existing housing estates.
Encourage the temporary use of vacant sites and land awaiting development.
Require, in detailed development management policies, development to incorporate on-site food production. This could include landscaping using edible plants and trees through to providing spaces suitable for food growing.
Require the incorporation of community food growing space in all new major residential developments.
Protect agricultural land
Restrict hot food takeaways
Encourage markets or models of community food retail

We have now published a suite of policies covering the food system which could be adapted for local areas. This briefing provides you with evidence that the food system is a planning issue and that it is possible to draft planning policies for a good food environment.

Remember - policies have to meet local needs – you can’t just pick a good policy off the shelf! But you might like to read how Calderdale's comprehensive suite of policies for food and health are interwoven through the 2023 adopted Local Plan.

Calderdale Local Plan adopted March 2023
Calderdale evaluated the draft plan's impact on the food environment at all stages of policy making through the Sustainability Appraisal. Three objectives ensured impacts on food growing and access to food were considered throughout.
Here are a few examples of their policies:

The chapter on Built Environment highlights the obesogenic environment as a design issue to be considered and follows this through into Policy BT1.

"20.12 The ‘obesogenic environment’ refers to environments that contribute to obesity. The design of the built environment has a role to play in limiting these factors through, for example, ‘point-of-decision prompts’ such as encouraging stair use over lift use in buildings, the provision of ‘trip-end’ facilities, enhancing access to healthy food and encouraging easy access to open space and areas where communities may be physically active."

All new residential developments shall include gardens or communal areas to support household food production and all developers are encouraged to explore ways to incorporate food growing into landscaping schemes and the spaces around their developments. (Policy HW5 Sustainable Local Food Production).

The Council and its partners will seek to work together to create and safeguard opportunities for safe, healthy, fulfilling and active lifestyles by promoting the role of communal growing spaces including allotments, garden plots within developments, small scale agriculture and farmers' markets in providing access to healthy, affordable, locally produced food options. (Policy HW3 Wellbeing)

Making your response

See the 'Responding to consultations' section of the toolkit for general advice. In particular check how the planning authority wants you to respond. You may need to back up your response with more, or updated, evidence. Your response to this stage of the local plan preparation will be given to the planning inspector who carries out the Examination stage of the local plan. You will be asked how your representation should be dealt at the Examination stage i.e. via your written representation only or by also exercising the right to be heard. Only where a change is sought to the Local plan is there a right for the representation to be heard at the hearing session(s). It is important to note that written and oral representations carry exactly the same weight and will be given equal consideration in the examination process. If you want the published local plan to be changed, your reasons should be as specific as possible and you should state clearly the changes that you are looking for to make the local plan legally compliant or sound.

The published deadline for responses is a strict time and date. Late responses cannot be accepted.

Don’t try to compete with the use of jargon or legalistic phrases. Use your own words – this will be more powerful.

Regather is a community benefit society working to improve food and build community in Sheffield.

They found out about the Sheffield Local Plan at a late stage early in 2023. The policies were already drafted and about to be submitted to Examination. The policies did not reflect the objectives of the local food partnership, so, in collaboration with The Institute for Sustainable Food, University of Sheffield, and at short notice, they submitted a response pointing out where the draft Local Plan was “unsound”.
Their response had to make specific recommendations of wording either to improve a current policy or to ask for a new policy and be backed up with evidence. The local evidence,
Fairer, Healthier, Greener – A Food Strategy for Sheffield (draft)
Sheffield City Council - Right to Food motion, Urban Agriculture Amendment
proved the plan was in error in missing out policies.
Overall, they made 19 individual representations relating to both Objectives and Policies where they concluded that local food infrastructure was omitted.
Their response stated:
“The draft Local Plan does not contain adequate policies for the sustainable development of local food infrastructure, nor does it fully utilise the National Planning Policy Framework to achieve sustainable development of local food infrastructure. Therefore the draft Local Plan cannot be considered to be positively prepared and is therefore unsound."
"The absence of clear policy measures to plan for local food infrastructure within the draft Local Plan shows that the Sheffield City Council Planning Service has failed to access the expertise of the Sheffield citizens and institutions working towards a better food future.”

The Council had an opportunity to consider all the responses received and make further changes to policies. These changes are recommendations for the Inspector to consider at the examination alongside all the representations made during plan making.
Sheffield City Council did indeed make some changes in response to Regather’s response.
These were to be considered at a session at the examination in December 2024. However, the examination was paused.

It is likely that the Sheffield Local Plan will eventually have policies relating to the food environment thanks to the vigilance, quick acting and dedication of Regather.

The next stage

All comments (representations) made during the publication stage are collected and recorded by the planning authority so they can be considered during the Examination stage. The responses to the publication draft local plan, the revised local plan and other supporting documents are ‘submitted’ to the Secretary of State, who then appoints a planning inspector to conduct the independent examination. The submission stage triggers the examination process and once an inspector is appointed the examination follows set procedures and timescales.

If you send in a response, you will be on the mailing list for further information about the Examination. Do keep tabs on who else is participating - some may be asking for changes which you would not support.