First consultation on new Local Plan for Harborough district to launch in January

The purpose of the ‘Issues and Options’ consultation is to start a public conversation about the future of the district and about what the new local plan should contain.

The current Harborough District Local Plan was adopted in 2019 and is the council's principal district-wide planning policy document which sets out the vision, objectives, and planning policies for the Harborough district up to 2031. The plan ensures that the growing population and future generations have access to great places to live and work, supported by the appropriate infrastructure. The local plan also enables the council to refuse development that is not in accordance with the plan.

Although the adopted plan is still valid, a new local plan is being prepared to ensure the development plan remains up to date, in line with Government guidance.

The consultation document focuses on key planning issues, including homes, jobs, heritage, town centres, climate change, biodiversity and protection of important open spaces. Each issue is introduced, explained, and feedback is invited on a number of consultation questions.

People will be able to read the consultation document on a dedicated web page and comment via a consultation portal. There will be an exhibition on the ground floor of the council offices in Market Harborough and in-person events will also take place in locations across the district where residents will have the chance to hear more about the issues and options and ask questions.

Locations, dates and times of the in-person events are as follows:

Responses received during the consultation will be used to inform the next stage of preparing the new local plan.

Cllr Galton, Cabinet lead for planning, said: “It’s really important that local people have the opportunity to feed in their views at this early stage of the process of developing a new local plan for the Harborough district. Since before Christmas, the council has been signposting to residents on the home page of its website that the consultation is coming and the initial number of drop-in events across the district during the consultation period has been increased to provide more people with the opportunities to find out more and ask questions.

“I encourage residents, parish councils and local community groups to read the consultation document and submit their comments when the consultation goes live on 16 January. We have got to move forward with the district’s local plan to keep control of where development goes in our district and protect against speculative applications from developers. It’s essential that we protect our towns and villages for every member of our community now and for future generations.”

Once adopted, the new local plan will set out planning policies in the Harborough district up to 2041. It will make sure development meets strategic priorities for housing, employment, community facilities, transport and other infrastructure needed to support development.

The consultation document is available now for people who wish to have early sight of it on the New Local Plan web page.

The consultation will go live on 16 January 2024 and will run until 27 February 2024.