South East Plan Consultation

Consultation has begun on the first review of the South East Plan to address the needs of Gypsy and Traveller communities.

Consultation on the full draft South East Plan took place in a number of stages. Following the regional consultation that took place in January to April 2005, consultation on local issues, such as the numbers of homes to be built in each district area, was carried out in autumn 2005 by the region's county and unitary councils (details below).

A further opportunity for consultation on the Plan followed the Plan's submission to Government on 31 March 2006.

Details of Autumn 2005 Local Consultation

Joint guidance on how local authorities should aim to conduct the consultation was agreed by representatives of county, unitary and district councils and representatives of Assembly stakeholder groups. Consultation lasted six weeks in each area, although dates varied between areas.

Regional consultation
Extensive region-wide consultation on the South East Plan was carried out from January-April 2005. Consultation responses were taken into account in an amended version of the South East Plan - Part 1: Core Regional Policies. This document was approved by Assembly members on 13 July 2005 and handed to Government on 29 July 2005. View or download Part 1 here free of charge.

Part 1 of the Plan covers region-wide issues such as environment, infrastructure, economy, transport and natural resources. It also sets out plans to build homes at an annual average rate of 28,900 for the next 20 years.

During the region-wide consultation period a questionnaire was sent to every household (over three million) in the region, and an online questionnaire was available on this website.

Over the consultation period 61,746 completed questionnaires were returned and 2,646 written responses were received. A summary of written responses can be viewed here.

The Assembly also commissioned MORI to carry out opinion polls and focus groups during the consultation period. Link to MORI results.

Earlier in the process, feedback from workshops for more than 1,000 stakeholders was considered as well as two previous opinion polls from MORI.

Sub-regional consultation
Local authorities submitted their views on local issues to the Assembly on 9 December 2005, after they had considered responses to their six-week consultation period.

These informed development of the South East Plan Part 2: Sub-regional Details, which were considered by the Assembly in early 2006.

South East Plan approval
The South East Plan was approved for submission to Government on 31 March at the Assembly Plenary meeting on 1 March 2006.

Next steps
There will be formal public consultation and a public examination into the Plan’s contents before the Government approves the final version of the South East Plan (expected to be in 2008). See timetable.

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