Final Consultation

SOLIHULL LOCAL PLAN: FINAL CONSULTATION

30 October - 14 December 2020

1. What's it All About?

Five years in the making, the Council has released for final public consultation their Solihull Local Plan (SLP), called the 'Draft Submission' version.

This sets out the Council's proposals for future development across the Borough. It's important because it will be the basis for future planning decisions, including siting of major new developments. Once approved, the SLP will guide development of the Borough through to 2036.

2. Where to Start?

The Council has produced a helpful explainer video about the SLP and the consultation process Here
The Council has provided access to all related documents and information Here
At 238 pages, the SLP is not a light read! Not to mention all the supporting documentation. To simplify things, and save trees, we've created an ebook that brings together extracts of some key elements relevant to KDBH. As well as being able to access this anywhere, on any device, the ebook makes it much easier to move around the information Here
The Council intends to run a number of public on-line webinars. Some dates are provisionally scheduled. If you are interested in attending, more details via link in 2 above.

3. Making Representations on the SLP

This final stage of consultation is different to previous ones, and gets rather technical. Representations this time round must relate to whether you consider the SLP to be (1) legally compliant and (2) sound. What this means is explained Here

Some aspects require reading of technical supporting documents included in the Council's evidence base Here. For KDBH, this would include, for example, the Knowle Transport Assessment and parts of the Solihull Parking study (see below).

If / once you're ready to make your representations, information on how to do so is on the Council's website via link 2 above. You can do so at any time up to 14 December.

If you're not a planner, though, you may well feel that trying to: a) understand and b) assess legality and soundness in this specific planning context is a tall order. It's daunting enough for planning professionals in the short 6-week consultation period allowed.

This is where your Forum can help. Our aim is to enable as many residents as possible to understand what the SLP means for us in KDBH and to help them take an informed view in making their representations count. In KDBH, we are extremely fortunate in having input from highly experienced planners who provide their expertise to the Forum team. We're pleased to say that they are already 'on the case' on our behalf.

4. What's Our Plan of Action?

We plan a phased approach, per below. For this to work, though, does require a very high level of involvement from all the Forum Team. It will be challenging and we may not always meet the exact timescales (especially if, as we hope, we receive loads of input from our community).

STEP 1: w/c 2 Nov. Our focus is to: extract the information most relevant to KDBH and place on this page; flag key areas and points arising for your attention; enable you to ask us questions on KDBH-related matters. We will do our best to answer questions raised and put these into KDBH 'Frequently Asked Questions' (FAQ’s) for all to read.

STEP 2: w/c 9 Nov. We will start to seek your views, asking for feedback on specific points arising from our emerging analysis. We will, of course, need to ensure that feedback comes from the KDBH community. Output from responses will be made available on our website. This feedback will help shape the Forum's approach to representations. We will also provide a way for you to submit any general comments (as opposed to specific questions) you may have.

STEP 3: w/c 16 Nov for two weeks. An intense period of work when we will bring together and analyse all the information and prepare draft representations.

STEP 4: w/c 30 Nov. We will put our draft representations onto the website. This will allow hopefully about a couple of weeks for you to read the Forum's view, provide any further feedback and consider any representation you may wish to make directly to the Council.

5. What Can I be Doing?

The main thing is to understand the background and build your understanding:

Check out the links on 'Where to Start' above

Read the document extracts below that we have pulled out from the mass of information available on the Council's website as being most relevant to us in KDBH

If you have questions, first check to see if this has already been raised and answered on:
- the Council's Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) Here
- The Forum's own FAQ (available shortly) Here

If that doesn't provide an answer, click the ? image below to go to our Questions Form and log your query. We will try to answer as best we can in our FAQs - always recognising the limits of our knowledge as this is the Council's Plan that we (unfortunately) have had no substantive or decision-making role in.

18 NOVEMBER UDPATE: To try and simplify things a bit, we have created a new web page with some short videos explaining what the SLP means for KDBH and the Forum's emerging analysis Here.

Click ? to go to Question Form.

6. And Finally...

Please do bear in mind that everything the Forum does relies on a completely unpaid, volunteer team committed to bringing together their professional skills and knowledge to serve their community. Covid poses a major challenge for effective consultation. We have never before attempted to seek out community views on-line on this scale and don't know exactly how it will turn out. With some trepidation, we're nevertheless determined to give it our best shot - nothing ventured nothing gained! Fingers crossed.....