West Berkshire Local Plan Review to 2039

Our current Local Plan sets out our planning policies up to 2026. We are undertaking a review of our Local Plan to cover the period up to 2039.

Independent examination of the West Berkshire Local Plan Review 2022-2039 (LPR)

The LPR is currently being independently examined by a Planning Inspector, William Fieldhouse BA(Hons) MA MRTPI, who was appointed by the Secretary of State. 

Examination hearing sessions were held in May, June and October 2024 to discuss a number of issues upon which the Planning Inspector required clarification. The purpose of the discussions at the hearings was for the Inspector, the Council and participants to gain the fullest possible understanding of any Main Modifications that may be required. Main Modifications are changes that are considered necessary by the Inspector to be sound and legally compliant.

Based on the outcomes of the hearing sessions and the additional work undertaken, at the request of the Inspector, the Council prepared a Schedule of Proposed Main Modifications to the LPR, together with a Schedule of Proposed Changes to the Policies Map arising as a result of the Proposed Main Modifications to the Plan. The Inspector has made it clear that at this stage of the Examination, he has concluded that the proposed Main Modifications are all necessary to address soundness issues and will be effective in doing so. However, this is without prejudice to his final conclusions which will ultimately be made having regard to representations in response to the public consultation, in addition to all of the evidence currently before him.

It is important that any proposed Main Modifications do not undermine the sustainability process that has informed the preparation of the LPR. The Council therefore updated the Sustainability Appraisal/Strategic Environmental Assessment (SA/SEA) Report and produced an addendum to the Habitats Regulations Assessment (HRA), both of which accompany the LPR.

Any proposed Main Modifications to the LPR require consultation, and the Inspector instructed the Council to progress to consultation. Between Friday 6 December 2024 and 11.59pm on Friday 31 January 2025, we consulted on the:

• Schedule of Proposed Main Modifications to the West Berkshire Local Plan Review 2022-2039 (November 2024)
• Schedule of the Proposed Changes to the Policies Map (Updated 17 December 2024) (It should be noted that Annex K (PMC12) in the Schedule of Proposed Changes to the Policies Map - November 2024, published on 6 December 2024, did not show the correct site boundary for Henwick Park in accordance with Main Modification 42 (MM42) - an updated version containing the correct boundary was published on 17 December 2024)
• Updated Sustainability Appraisal/Strategic Environmental Assessment (SA/SEA) Report - Proposed Main Modifications (November 2024)
• Addendum to the Habitats Regulations Assessment (HRA) of the Proposed Main Modifications (November 2024)

To view the documents and find out further information about the consultation that took place, please visit our dedicated consultation webpage. Please note that we are not accepting any further representations.

All representations received by the Council will be sent to the Inspector, along with a report listing all of the representations, a brief summary of the main issues raised and a brief Council response to those main issues. These will also be published on the Local Plan Review webpage which can be accessed here.

The Inspector will consider all of the representations and the Council's responses to them before finalising and issuing his Examination Report. At this stage, it is not envisaged any further hearing sessions will be held unless the Inspector considers it essential to deal with any substantial issues arising from the consultation.

You can find further details of the examination to date here.

Submission of the LPR

The LPR was submitted to the Secretary of State on 31 March 2023. 

You can find further information on the documents that were submitted here. 

Consultation on the proposed submission (Regulation 19) version of the LPR

At a meeting of Full Council on 1 December 2022, the proposed submission (Regulation 19) version of the LPR and its supporting documents were presented to Councillors. Councillors agreed that these documents could be subject to public consultation. You can view the Council papers here, and watch the Council meeting on YouTube.

The statutory Regulation 19 consultation on the LPR Proposed Submission document took place between 4pm on Friday 20 January 2023 and 4.30pm on Friday 3 March 2023. The documents that we consulted on can be accessed here. The responses that we received were published on our consultation portal on 23 March 2023 - you can view the responses here.
 

Supporting evidence

The LPR must be supported by a robust evidence base. A number of studies and assessments have been undertaken and information has been collected to inform the plan. The studies and assessments prepared to date are set out on our Local Plan Review Evidence page.
 

Previous consultations

We have undertaken three previous Regulation 18 consultations on the LPR, both of which have fed into the proposed submission (Regulation 19) version of the document.

We set out the scope and content of our LPR in our  Local Plan Review Scoping Report [290KB]  and accompanying  Sustainability Appraisal Scoping Report [4MB]  which we consulted on between February and March 2018. The feedback we received and the way in which this will be taken forward is summarised in our LPR Scoping Report Consultation Statement (October 2018) [4MB] .

Between November and December 2018 we then consulted on our proposed: 

• vision for the Local Plan Review
• revision of the existing spatial areas
• methodology for reviewing the existing settlement hierarchy
• criteria for the settlement boundary review
• update of our assessment of existing Local Plan policies

Details of this consultation are set out in the LPR Regulation 18 Consultation Paper November 2018 [2MB] . The feedback we received and the way in which this will be taken forward is summarised in our  LPR Regulation 18 Nov-Dec 2018 Consultation Statement - June 2019 [427KB] .

We produced an  emerging draft of the LPR which is available to download online [9MB]  which was subject to an eight-week consultation between 11 December 2020 to 5 February 2021. This identified the development required to meet our local needs, our strategy for distributing development within the district, as well as our policies for conserving and enhancing the natural and built environment. 

The feedback we received, and the way in which this is being taken forward, is set out in the  Consultation Statement for the Proposed Submission (Regulation 18) West Berkshire Local Plan Review 2022-2039 [23MB] .
 

Facebook Live

On Monday 8 March 2021 we held a Facebook Live on the Local Plan Review. The video can be viewed below and you can  read the questions we received prior and during the Facebook Live, here [1MB] . Due to the high number and complexity of questions we have answered the majority of the questions submitted. You will notice some answers are missing and this question and answer document will be continually updated as we work to gather the answers. Please do check back for updates.
 

On 29 November 2021, a response from the Acting Chief Executive to a letter from a member of the public regarding the proposed Local Plan Review allocation at North East Thatcham was published. You can view the response online, here [921KB] .