After representing clients at the Eastleigh Local Plan examination hearings, we have been keeping a watchful eye on progress with the plan. The Council has just published a letter from the appointed inspector, outlining how a consultation on main modifications to the plan is expected in June 2021 at the earliest. Speaking on the announcement, Steve Tapscott, Associate Director at Chapman Lily, said ‘the last time Eastleigh adopted a local plan was in 2006. Considering that the new plan was submitted to the Secretary of State for examination in October 2018, the pace of progress has been frustrating slow. The examination uncovered significant flaws in the Council’s strategy and gaps in the evidence base, which the inspector is trying hard to work around. I applaud the inspector’s pragmatism, but it is important not to ignore the fact that these delays are a direct result of the Council producing a poor plan in the first place. The delays are having severe implications in terms of certainty for the development industry and local community and these will continue, as the inspector will still need to write her report on the plan after the consultation has finished and it will still need to proceed towards adoption. We are therefore still many months away from the situation being resolved’.
If you would like to find out more about the Eastleigh Local Plan, feel free to get in touch.