New council group will drive review of Peterborough planning policies

A committee of eight Peterborough City Council (PCC) councillors will be formed to work on the city’s new Local Plan.

The council began work on this, which lays out rules for developers as well as sites ear-marked for construction, in January this year.

Having issued a call out for suggested sites and opened an initial round of public consultation, it will now form a ‘working group’ of cross-party councillors to make recommendations to the rest of the council on the plan and keep track of its progress.

It will not have decision-making powers, however, with these ultimately resting with PCC’s cabinet and the council as a whole.

The committee’s meetings, moreover, won’t be public, but brief minutes will be published online, PCC says.

A second round of public consultation is expected in summer 2024 when a draft version of the new Local Plan has been drawn up, with completion projected for 2026.

PCC currently has an adopted Local Plan which remains in force until then, which was finalised in 2019.

But land designated for use by businesses in this plan has largely run out, which PCC says is one of the driving forces behind the creation of the new one.

The first round of consultation, which includes 45 questions on the principles behind possible policies, closes this week (15th September).