Creating a plan timetable
How to create and keep your timetable up to date.
Applies to England
Local planning authorities and minerals and waste planning authorities must create, publish and keep a plan timetable up to date.
The timetable sets out when you will prepare your plan, so that you can share your overall timescale for plan-making with:
- the public
- anyone with an interest in the plan
This guidance applies to timetables for the following plans:
- local plans
- minerals and waste plans
- supplementary plans
If you are preparing any supplementary plans, you must include the dates for preparing them in your timetable.
If you are both a local planning authority and a minerals and waste planning authority, you can create a single timetable.
What to include in your plan timetable
Your timetable must include:
- the matters your plan will deal with
- the geographical area that your plan will cover
- any supplementary plans that you will prepare (including the subject matter, geographical area and sites they relate to)
- key milestone dates
Local plans
Your timetable must also include any matter or area where you have agreed, or propose to agree, to set up a joint committee.
Minerals and waste plans
Your timetable must also include:
- if your plan will be partly formed of one or more joint minerals and waste plan documents
- how many documents will collectively form the plan for your area
Joint plans
Your timetable must also set out each of the authorities involved.
Timetable dates
The dates you must include in the timetable are the key milestone dates for the end-to-end process of preparing a plan.
Local plans and minerals and waste plan documents
When you publish your timetable, you must include dates for when:
- you will make your notice of intention to commence plan preparation available
- the scoping consultation will start and end
- you will publish your Gateway 1 self-assessment summary
- the consultation on proposed plan content and evidence will start and end
- observations and advice will be sought for Gateway 2
- the consultation on the proposed plan will start and end
- observations and advice will be sought for Gateway 3
- you will submit the plan or document for examination
- you will adopt the plan or document
- any further optional consultations will start and will end, if you know at this stage that you intend to run one
When any of the following events happen, you must update your timetable by the relevant time to include:
- when you publish Gateway 2 observations and advice
- when you publish Gateway 3 observations and advice
- when you publish the examiner’s recommendations and reasons following examination
- the period of any pause in an examination (should this happen)
- date of withdrawal
- date of revocation
If you decide to hold a further optional consultation after you publish your timetable, you must update your timetable as soon as is reasonably practicable to set out the consultation:
- start date
- end date
If you repeat Gateway 3, you must include the date when:
- further observations and advice were sought
- you publish Gateway 3 observations and advice
Supplementary plans
If you prepare any supplementary plans, your timetable must include the following details:
- the subject matter and geographical area, site or sites that each supplementary plan covers
- whether any supplementary plans are joint supplementary plans
- each of the authorities involved in any joint supplementary plan
For each supplementary plan that you will prepare, your timetable must include when:
- you will make your notice of intention to commence supplementary plan preparation available
- the consultation on the proposed supplementary plan will start and end
- you will submit the supplementary plan for examination
- you will adopt the supplementary plan
When to publish your plan timetable
You must publish your timetable no later than on the same day as when you publish your notice of intention to commence plan preparation. You can choose to publish your timetable earlier.
If you start preparing a supplementary plan before your plan, you need to publish your plan timetable no later than when you publish your notice of intention to commence supplementary plan preparation.
If you publish both your timetable and notice of intention to commence plan preparation at the same time, they must be separate documents.
You should publish your timetable in a format that is clear and easy to understand.
Bring your plan timetable into effect
To bring your timetable into effect, you must publish:
- your timetable
- a statement to say that the timetable is to have effect
You should make sure that the timetable and statement appear together on your website.
Once your timetable has effect, you must comply with it. You should update the date that the timetable takes effect each time you make changes to the timetable.
Make your timetable available to the public
You must:
- publish your timetable on your website
- make your timetable available for public inspection at your main office and other appropriate places within your area during normal opening hours
- make copies of your timetable available on request by members of the public
Joint plans
This guidance applies to timetables for the following joint plans:
- local plans
- minerals and waste plan documents
- supplementary plans
Each authority preparing a joint plan must:
- prepare their own plan timetable
- publish a timetable that is consistent with each other authority
- publish their timetable on their own website or on the website for the joint plan
- make their timetable available for public inspection at their main office and other appropriate places within their area during normal opening hours
If you publish a timetable on the website for the joint plan, you must also publish details of where you can view the timetable on your own website. You must publish these details on the same day that you publish the timetable.
Each authority should publish any updates to their plan timetable on the same day.
Keep your timetable up to date
You need to keep your timetable up to date.
You must update your timetable every month from the date it is first published if there are any changes to the dates.
You must update your timetable on the same day when you publish:
- your Gateway 1 self-assessment summary
- the observations and advice you receive at Gateway 2
- the observations and advice you receive at Gateway 3
- the recommendations and reasons of the examiner following the examination of your plan or document
You must update your plan timetable as soon as is reasonably practicable when:
- you decide to carry out an additional consultation
- you seek further observations and advice as part of a repeat of Gateway 3
- you publish further observations and advice as part of a repeat of Gateway 3
- your plan or document is withdrawn
- your plan or document is revoked
- you receive notification that the examination of your plan or document is paused
Record changes to the timetable
You must always update your published timetable to show the latest dates and information within the relevant time limit.
To maintain a record of your plan-making progress, you should keep a schedule of amendments to your timetable. You should publish a clear and concise schedule of amendments on your website alongside the timetable.