The Statement of Community Involvement was adopted by the Council at its meeting on the 22 May 2007 and has now been published in its final printed form (as amended by the Inspector’s Report of Independent Examination).

The SCI affects you because it sets out Torbay Council’s policy for involving the community in the preparation and revision of the long term visions for the area in the Local Development Framework (LDF) and in the determination of planning applications.

A key principle underlying the new planning system is the early, continuous and widespread engagement of stakeholders and the public. This is aimed at achieving ownership and community buy-in for the preparation and revision of Local Development Documents (LDDs) and the consideration of planning applications.

This process is to be formalised and regulated through a Statement of Community Involvement (a statutory requirement of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004). This document will be the subject of community involvement and representation in order properly to reflect, and be tailored to, the individual communities represented by each LDF. Local Authorities need to develop partnerships that encourage local people to help develop the spatial vision for their area.

The Torbay SCI sets out the Torbay Council's vision and strategy for community involvement in the planning process and how this links with other community involvement initiatives (for example, the Torbay Community Plan). It identifies the community groups that need to be involved and the techniques required to effectively involve them, both informally and formally, which should include those people and groups who are not easy to reach using conventional methods of public participation.

The Torbay SCI also shows how the process of involvement will be resourced and managed effectively, and how the results will feed into the preparation of LDDs. It also sets out the various points at which the local planning authority will involve the community in preparing the LDDs, including the statutory participation on a draft statement of community involvement.

The last public consultation (the Regulation 28 stage) ran for a 6 week period from 6th November to Friday 15th December 2006.

The Independent Examination of the Regulation 28 Submission Version of the SCI was completed by the Planning Inspectorate (PINS) in early 2007. On 22 March 2007 the Council was notified that the SCI was judged to be ‘sound’ by PINS. The SCI was subsequently adopted by the Council at its meeting on 22 May 2007. The Inspector's Report on the Regulation 28 Submission Draft SCI can be accessed below, together with the Adoption Statement, Notice of Adoption and Adoption Information. These documents are are available to view in Adobe Acrobat format in the Related Documents.

A brief guide to examining statements of community involvement has been produced by the Planning Inspectorate. It is included in the Related Documents for reference.

We are very grateful to all those who made representations during the preparation of this document.

Early drafts of the SCI (Regulation 25 and 26 documents) are available from the Strategic Planning Group for information purposes only.

The Statement of Community Involvement (SCI) is one of the key documents in the Torbay Local Development Framework (LDF). The SCI sets the standards and approach that Torbay Council takes to involve stakeholders and the community in the production of the LDF, as well as the handling of major planning applications. It is intended to ‘signpost’ opportunities for anyone who wishes to make a contribution to planning for Torbay’s future.

The SCI was the first LDF document that the Council steered through the Examination process to adoption. The final version was Adopted by the Council on May 2007 and published in July 2007.

Since Adoption, the Government has issued new Regulations (2008) and related policy guidance (Planning Policy Statement 12: Creating Strong, Safe and Prosperous communities through Local Spatial Planning) that has changed the way in which LDFs should be prepared.  As a consequence, the stages indicated in the SCI for consultation have changed.  As a result, the Strategic Planning Group has published an addendum to the SCI. This update makes technical amendments in light of the new Regulations and indicates the new stages (at Regulation 25 and 27) that public will be consulted.

Note: Details of the minimum statutory requirements for community consultation in the preparation of DPDs can be found in The Town & Country Planning (Local Development) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2008.  

It should also be noted that other Government proposals to change the LDF process have required changes to the 2004 Planning Act and these have been incorporated into the new 2008 Planning Act.   These changes have been brought into effect by The Town and Country Planning (Local Development) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2009.  These Regulations do not directly affect the stages at which the public will be consulted.

The updated SCI, plus the adopted version and associated documents, are available to download from the Related Documents section below.