Local Plan Review

You can view the Local Plan review consultation documents on our specially designed Planning Policy consultation portal.

We prefer receiving comments through the consultation portal. This ensures that your comments are recorded accurately and are processed quickly. You can also download the consultation documents and sign up for consultation alerts.

You can find out more about how to use the Planning Policy consultation portal.

You can also read detailed guidance on how to make your comments on these Local Plan consultation events.

Commenting on individual planning applications

This Local Plan consultation is a separate process to making comments on a planning application. You can find out how to comment on a planning application.

Chelmsford Local Plan: Pre-Submission (Regulation 19) Document

This is the main consultation document, where we include sites where new homes, jobs and other facilities will be located as well as areas for protection.

We also include updated and new policies that we will use to decide planning applications. The document also includes a Policies Map which shows where the planning policies apply.

You can click on event 1 in the consultation portal to read and make comments on the document as you go. We need you to consider whether the Pre-Submission Document is legally compliant and consistent with national policy, and answer specific consultation questions on this.

Chelmsford Local Plan: Pre-Submission (Regulation 19) Questionnaire

This is a simple questionnaire on the main consultation document.
You can click on event 2 in the consultation portal if you have read the consultation document and just want to make your comments in one place.

We need you to consider whether the Pre-Submission Document is legally compliant and consistent with national policy, and answer specific consultation questions on this.

Pre-Submission Integrated Impact Assessment (IIA)

This includes environmental, habitats, quality and health assessments of the impacts of the Pre-Submission Local Plan.

You can click on event 3 in the consultation portal to view and comment on the IIA.

Co-Living Housing Planning Advice Note Consultation

This provides practical guidance to potential promoters or developers of co-living housing in Chelmsford.

You can click on event 4 in the consultation portal to view and comment on the Planning Advice Note. 

Consultation Draft Planning Obligations Supplementary Planning Document (SPD)

This sets out how we will seek planning obligations such as financial contributions towards important site improvements when considering planning applications.

You can click on event 5 in the consultation portal to view and comment on the SPD.

Before making your comments, we recommend you read the guidance contained in the Pre-Submission (Regulation 19) Statement of Representation Procedure and Statement on Availability of Proposed Submission Documents for Inspection

This includes the ‘Tests of Soundness’ that your comments should address, including legal compliance and consistency with national policy. These are the broad areas that the Planning Inspector will focus on in examining the Local Plan.

We have published feedback reports from the earlier consultation stages:

Issues and Options ‘You Said We Did’ Feedback Report (May 2024)

Preferred Options ‘You Said We Did’ Feedback Report (February 2025)

You can see a list of all the adopted and allocated sites (Sites at a Glance), with a note of which Policies Map section they are shown on. The Policies Maps are included at Section 11 of the Local Plan Pre-Submission Options Consultation Document.

Topic papers

We have produced several Topic Papers to set out how the review of the Local Plan has been developed. We will refresh and update them at each stage of the review process to ensure the latest information/position is available.

Topic Papers provide background information, but they do not contain any policies, proposals or site allocations. They will form part of the Local Plan evidence base which we will submit alongside the Local Plan for independent examination.

Pre-Submission Topic Paper - Housing (February 2025)

We prefer receiving comments through the consultation portal. This ensures that your comments are recorded accurately and are processed quickly. You can also download the consultation documents and sign up for consultation alerts.

You can find out more about how to use the Planning Policy consultation portal.

If you prefer to send comments in writing, you can print and fill in the relevant specially-designed representation forms for each consultation event.

The representation forms are for the:

• Pre-Submission (Regulation 19) Document
• Continuation form for the Pre-Submission (Regulation 19) Document
• Integrated Impact Assessment
• Continuation form for the Integrated Impact Assessment
• Co-Living Planning Advice Note
• Draft Planning Obligations Supplementary Planning Document

We will then record your comments on the Consultation Portal, to make sure they are dealt with alongside the online comments.

You can collect a paper copy of these representation forms from our Customer Service Centre, or you can request one by phone on 01245 606330 or by email.

You can also make comments:

• by e-mail to policy@chelmsford.gov.uk
• by post to Planning Policy, Chelmsford City Council, Civic Centre, Duke Street, Chelmsford, CM1 1JE
• by hand at our Customer Service Centre

If you have difficulties commenting due to a disability, you can call 01245 606330. We can make documents available in alternative formats, including large print, audio and other languages, on request by phone on (01245) 606330 or by email.

You can:

• view our What is a Local Plan? video 
• download a copy of the FAQs
• read our Pre-Submission Local Plan Newsletter 
• read our Integrated Impact Assessment Newsletter 
• view our exhibition panels

You can also visit one of our exhibitions in person.

We will be holding a staffed exhibition in our Council Chamber at the Civic Centre on:

• Thursday 27 February, from 6pm to 8pm
• Friday 28 February, from 2pm to 4pm
• Saturday 1 March, from 10am to 12 noon

You can also view an unstaffed exhibition at:

• the High Chelmer Shopping Centre from Monday 24 February to Sunday 2 March, between 7am and 6.30pm
• South Woodham Ferrers Town Council, Champions Manor Hall, Hullbridge Road, SWF from Thursday 13 February to Tuesday 25 February, between 9am and 4pm (excluding weekends)

We will acknowledge receipt of all ‘duly made’ representations to all the consultation events, but we will not enter into individual correspondence. We will record and publish all comments on the Consultation Portal .

We will send all comments about the Chelmsford Local Plan: Pre-Submission (Regulation 19) Document, and Pre-Submission Integrated Impact Assessment (IIA), to the Planning Inspectorate for Independent Examination. We will also publish feedback reports.

Once we have considered the consultation responses, we will finalise the Co-Living Housing Planning Advice Note in spring 2025.

We will prepare a feedback report on the Consultation Draft Planning Obligations Supplementary Planning Document (SPD), and submit the document as evidence for the Independent Examination. We expect to publish a final version when we adopt the Local Plan.

We adopted our current Local Plan in May 2020. It guides growth and development across Chelmsford City Council's area to 2036. We need to review the plan at least every five years, to see if we need to update it. The review means that the Local Plan will now run until 2041.

Issues and Options (previous stage)

This was the first stage of consultation, which took place in 2022. Many people and organisations commented, and we have carefully considered all the responses, alongside updated evidence, national planning policy, new local priorities, and monitoring data.  

You can read an Issues and Options feedback report which sets out the consultation feedback we received on the Issues and Options consultation and how we have taken the comments into account when preparing the Preferred Options Local Plan.

Preferred Options (previous stage)

This consultation was the second formal stage in the preparation of the review plan, and involved residents, businesses, developers, and other interested parties. 

We have published a Preferred Options feedback report setting out a review of the consultation activity, a summary of the representations we received, and how these comments have been used to develop the Pre-Submission Local Plan document.

Pre-Submission (current stage)

This consultation is the third formal stage in the preparation of the review plan. This consultation focuses on legal compliance and consistency with national planning policy.

The consultation runs for a period of six weeks from 10am on Tuesday 4 February 2025 to 4pm on Tuesday 18 March 2025.

Submission (future stage)

This is the formal Submission of the Local Plan. We will submit all plan documents, evidence, and comments to the Planning Inspector for an Independent Examination.

We recently consulted on two Neighbourhood Plans. These have been developed by Broomfield and Danbury Parish Councils and cover a wide range of issues such as landscape, transport, recreation, heritage, building design, and business.

Danbury Neighbourhood Plan has been made (adopted).

Broomfield Neighbourhood Plan will be subject to a local referendum soon.

You can view the:

• Broomfield Neighbourhood Plan
• Danbury Neighbourhood Plan

We will continue to assess the Local Plan as we review it, to make sure it contributes towards sustainability. We will assess the following aspects of sustainable development:

• Sustainability Appraisal
• Strategic Environmental Assessment
• Habitats Regulations Assessment
• Health Impact Assessment
• Equality Impact Assessment

The IIA assesses the issues and options against a range of social, environmental and economic indicators and helps to identify all the likely significant effects. The IIA advises on ways in which any adverse effects could be avoided, reduced or mitigated or how any positive effects could be maximised. This helps to ensure that the emerging policies, plans and allocations in the Local Plan are promoting sustainable development.

We use the Strategic Housing and Employment Land Availability Assessment (SHELAA) to assess sites nominated by landowners, promoters and developers. This helps us when researching and developing future Local Plans.

The SHELAA 2023/2024 is our latest published assessment. This assesses the sites put forward to us for consideration as part of the Local Plan Review. You can view the outcomes of that assessment.

The SHELAA is open all year round, meaning you can submit a new site or amend an existing site on a rolling basis. We aim to assess submissions yearly. We anticipate that the next cut-off point for submissions will be spring 2025.

You can submit a site for future assessment, or amend an already submitted site, through the current SHELAA facility. 

You can find out more about how to submit or amend a site, and see the latest assessment outcomes.

We have a specially designed consultation portal for Local Plan and other planning policy consultations.

If you register, you can:

• read and save consultation documents
• make your comments online
• receive alerts on future consultations

You can find out more about how to use the consultation portal.

We use the Local Development Scheme (LDS) to manage the plan-making process. It sets out our timetable for preparing the documents and for consulting on the Local Plan review.

We first adopted an LDS in 2006 and we have reviewed it regularly as we have made progress on producing our Local Plan.

This LDS is the ninth review. You can download the Chelmsford Local Development Scheme 2023-2028.

You can also download the eighth review of the LDS, which we published in November 2021. You can view the changes we have made since November 2021 in Appendix 1 of the 2023-2028 LDS document.

We are committed to working with other councils and key organisations on planning issues that cross council boundaries.

The organisations we regularly work with include Essex County Council, National Highways, environmental organisations and education providers.

We have to ensure that we properly co-ordinate strategic issues such as:

• land for new homes and jobs
• infrastructure
• providing schools
• mitigating climate change

We have adopted a Duty to Co-operate Strategy, which sets out who we will co-operate with and when, plus how we will do it.

You can download the Duty to Co-operate Strategy.