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Statement of Community Involvement

The Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 requires South Bucks District Council (SBDC) to produce a Local Development Framework (LDF) to replace the current South Bucks District Local Plan, which was adopted in 1999. The LDF is to comprise a series of Local Development Documents(LDDs), which will set out where development will be allowed to take place, the standards that will be applied when considering proposals for new developments, and how the environment will be safeguarded for future generations.

The Act requires SBDC to involve local communities at every stage of producing the LDF and at every stage of the implementation of the LDF through the consideration and the approval or rejection of planning applications. It requires the processes and methods of involving local communities to be set out in a Statement of Community Involvement (SCI). Therefore the SCI is paramount in the consultation process to produce the LDF.

In January, SBDC published a first draft SCI with an invitation to "community groups, stakeholders and the public" to express their views. The draft refers to preliminary consultations in early 2005 "with Town/Parish Councils, adjoining Local Planning Authorities, key stakeholders, organisations and statutory bodies". Taplow Parish Council (TPC), the Taplow Parish Plan Implementation and Monitoring Group (IMG), Hitcham and Taplow Preservation Society (HTPS), Ellington Road and District Residents’ Association (EDRA), and Cedar Chase Residents’ Society (CCRS) responded to the invitation for comments and suggestions.

SBDC published a statement giving answers to most of the points that had been raised in the responses, accepting a few relatively minor comments but rejecting the major suggestions.

The Act requires SBDC to submit a final draft SCI to the Secretary of State for examination for "soundness" by an inspector appointed by the planning inspectorate. SBDC will be required to make any changes stipulated by the Inspector and to adopt the revised SBI. Then SBDC must abide by the SCI in preparing Local Development Documents and in considering planning applications.

The public was invited to make representations on the final draft SCI for consideration by the Inspector and to request to speak at the Examination. TPC, IMG, HTPS, EDRA, CCRS and several Taplow residents have made representations with requests to attend and/or to speak at the Examination. Taplow representations are much concerned with the dismissive attitude to Parish Plans enshrined in the SCI and with the leading role of unelected bodies in the formulation of policies for future LDDs.

The stated intent at many points within the SCI to take action or to impart information "as appropriate", especially in the context of the phrases "to reduce consultation fatigue" and "the nature and complexity of the subject matters", heightens these concerns. The strength of these concerns leads to the perception that the democratic structure of elected and accountable Parish Councils will be ignored, and the role of the Local Strategic Partnership, the Citizen Panel and other appointed bodies will be a means of engineering the process of community involvement to produce a pre-determined result.

The representations detail changes to the SCI, which, if accepted by the Inspector, will reduce the concern by a degree of magnitude.

As this Newsletter goes to press it is disheartening that the immediate response of the Inspector to the representations is a form letter attempting to discourage requests to attend the Examination.

Karl Lawrence