Planning is still moving onwards, South Lakeland District Council are continuing with the development of the Local Plan. If you have land or an interest in any planning aspect that we can help you with, please don't hesitate to contact us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
RELEASE FROM SLDC
Planning for uncertain times...
A lot has changed in the world since we launched our review of the South Lakeland Local Plan February 2020.

The advice from the government’s Chief Planner is to continue with plan making as best we can during the Covid-19 pandemic, adjusting timescales if necessary. We’re currently taking stock and following developments and debate in the planning world, including this online discussion of policy planners chaired by the Planning Advisory Service which reveals some challenges that local authorities are facing in progressing their Local Plans during the pandemic.

Reviewing our Local Plan—where are we?
We launched our Local Plan Review in February to start conversations with communities and stakeholders about the future of our area, and we published a number of documents on our new Local Plan Review webpage which we are still seeking views on, including:

• A Summary Leaflet which provides a brief introduction to the Local Plan Review.
• A Discussion Paper which sets out what the Local Plan Review is all about and summarises which areas of the Local Plan we think need updating and what the key issues facing our district are.
• A Draft Policy Review Paper which presents our initial view on which policies in our Local Plan we think need updating.
• A draft Sustainability Appraisal Scoping Report which sets out the key issues in our area and how we will assess the sustainability impacts of the Local Plan as we review it.

We launched two online surveys for people to share their views on the above documents, including a short survey and a more detailed survey based on the discussion paper and policy review paper.

We had planned five public drop in events to talk with communities and attended three of these before the coronavirus situation escalated and the final two events in Kendal and Milnthorpe were postponed until further notice.

We also held a stakeholder launch event on 6 March 2020 in Kendal where a varied range of stakeholders came together to discuss the key issues from their perspective and to consider which parts of the Local Plan need to be revised. You can read a write up of the launch event here.

We recognise that stakeholders and communities have been and continue to be severely challenged by the impacts of the Covid-19 emergency. We are therefore reviewing how best to take the plan forward and continue engagement in the recovery period.