Statement of Community Involvement 2021 Review

1 Introduction

1.1 The Council, as the Local Planning Authority, is required to prepare a Statement of Community Involvement under Section 18 of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act (2004). The purpose of the Statement of Community Involvement is to set out the principles for engaging and consulting with local communities – including residents, organisations and businesses – and other interested parties on planning matters. Consultation and engagement on planning matters set out in this Statement seek to go beyond the minimum regulatory requirements^[1] for community involvement in the plan making process in particular and are in line with the Council's corporate Consultation Guide for Staff^[2].

1.2 The first Statement of Community Involvement was adopted by the Council in 2007 to set out how local communities would be involved throughout the preparation of the Local Development Framework (LDF), and consultation on planning applications and planning enforcement. However, since its adoption there have been a number of legislative changes on how Local Planning Authorities should engage with local communities during plan-making and the planning application process. The 2007 Statement of Community Involvement goes beyond the minimum consultation requirements set out in the legislation, but a review is necessary to ensure that it reflects current best practice and is up-to-date prior to consultation on future local development documents.

1.3 The Town and Country Planning (Local Planning) Regulations 2012 require local planning authorities to review their Statements of Community Involvement every 5 years from the adoption date. It is important that Statements of Community Involvement are kept up-to-date to ensure effective community involvement at all stages of the planning process (Planning Practice Guidance, 2019), This document contains amendments made as part of a 2021 review of the Council's 2016 Statement of Community Involvement.

1.4 The rules on how personal data is collected, processed and disposed of were updated on 25 May 2018 when the General Data Protection Regulation 2016 (GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018 came into force. Rochford District Council has a Data Protection Policy in place, and there are measures being applied to protect personal data in line with the GDPR. The Council stores and processes personal data for planning policy consultations in line with the relevant Privacy Notice.