This report recommends consultation on the Draft Statement of Community Involvement, a statutory document setting out how consultation will be undertaken on planning policy documents as well as other planning matters.

The Committee considered a reportrecommending consultation on a Draft Statement of Community Involvement (SCI), a document setting out how consultation would be undertaken on planning policy documents as well as other planning matters.  An Equality Impact Assessment was attached to the report at Appendix 1 and the draft SCI attached at Appendix 2.

The report noted that the existing SCI had been adopted in 2014 and updates were now required, in particular to comply with the law around neighbourhood plan making.  It was a statutory requirement to adopt an SCI and that it be reviewed within five yearly intervals, and a review of the SCI’s content had been carried out and reported to Council on 15 October 2024 as part of a report on the Local Plan Partial Update (Minute 22 refers).  This review had found that the SCI was up to date other than the elements that related to neighbourhood planning.  Council had therefore decided that the Statement of Community Involvement (adopted 2014) be the basis for carrying out consultation on the Local Plan Partial Update, although the report had noted that an update in terms of neighbourhood planning should be progressed when resources allowed.

An updated draft SCI was attached to the report at Appendix 2 and the report explained that there were minor updates throughout but that the substantive changes were solely in relation to neighbourhood planning.  It was a statutory requirement for the SCI to set out how the Council would support neighbourhood planning and neighbourhood development orders, irrespective of whether there were bodies that were constituted to carry out such functions.  There were no such bodies in Reading at present.  These functions were most frequently carried out by parish or town councils, but there were routes to establishing a neighbourhood forum that could potentially be used in Reading during the lifetime of the SCI, so it was necessary for the SCI to deal with this matter.  A six-week period of consultation on the draft SCI was expected to begin in January 2025.

Resolved -

(1)       That the Draft Statement of Community Involvement, as set out at Appendix 2 to the report, be published for consultation;

(2)       That the Assistant Director for Planning, Transport and Public Protection, in consultation with the Lead Councillor for Planning and Assets, be authorised to make any minor amendments necessary to the Draft Statement of Community Involvement prior to consultation that did not alter the overall approach.