Gateway 1 Self-Assessment Summary

How we got ready to prepare a new local plan 

We started preparing a new local plan for Bromsgrove District Council on 30th October 2026. 

Government policy says we should adopt the new plan within 30 months of this date. This helps ensure we have an up-to-date local plan that responds to the needs of the area and our communities. 

This page explains what we've done to get ready to meet the 30-month timeframe. This Gateway 1 Self-Assessment summary is also available as a pdf here.

We have published a timetable for preparing the plan

The timetable shows when we expect to carry out the different stages and activities for preparing a plan. It helps us check if and how we can adopt the plan within the 30-month timeframe. We’ll keep this updated as we make more progress and display any changes via a table of amendments included on the webpage linked below. 

Due to previous high levels of engagement from our residents, the analysis of the responses to the two subsequent  public consultations - consultation on proposed local plan content and evidence, and consultation on the proposed local plan, may take us some time to process.  

To ensure we deliver our plan within 30 months, we: 

• • have proactively engaged with stakeholders and community groups, before publishing our notice of intention to commence through our previous consultations including the Draft Development Strategy consultation
  • have undertaken extensive evidence base work including site assessment work on the land parcels available for development
  • will promote the use of a digital response forms to help us analyse the responses most efficiently

Community and stakeholder engagement as well as work carried out prior to formally starting the 30-month plan-making system puts the council in a strong position to adopt our plan within the required timeframe. It also ensured that stakeholders and residents had sight of the plan-making process and the requirements for the new plan-making system early on.  We are confident that we will be able to draft the plan within the 30-month timeframe. We will continue to work with these groups throughout plan preparation and notify all stakeholders should amendments to the timetable be required.

We have established project management and governance arrangements 

Preparing a local plan involves many people across the council and from other organisations. Thinking early about how the work is planned, managed and signed off helps us: 

• • check our progress and keep the work on track
  • anticipate and manage any risks to us adopting the plan within 30 months 

We have developed a project plan to help us prepare the plan in line with our local plan timetable and have set up a regular Cross Party Local Plan Working Group of elected members and key officers to monitor our progress and take the lead on plan progression. These measures ensure we have a thorough and clearly defined strategy to manage, govern and resource preparation of the local plan. When we developed the project plan, we identified some risks to its delivery. We have reflected on these risks and identified things we can do to reduce these risks.

We planned how we will consult on the plan 

Public consultation is essential for the local plan to represent the needs of our communities. It must be easy as possible for people to have their say in a way that works for them, so they can influence the way the area develops.

We used the feedback from previous Local Plan work to help us prepare an engagement strategy. This describes how we’ll consult and communicate with our communities as we continue to prepare the plan. These consultations generated a high level of response which we are expecting to continue as the plan progresses. We have already undertaken some informal engagement activities and planned to increase our resource and use of digital software to analyse the responses in a timely manner. 

Additionally, these consultations have allowed us to test new digital platforms for consultation as well as ways of handling and analysing high volumes of responses. We will continue to investigate the use of new software to help analyse responses more efficiently and publish this on our website. 

We will promote these digital tools as the primary method of engagement due to the benefits they can provide both to residents and our officers. However, given the demographics of previous respondents, we are conscious that we must continue to provide all traditional means of responding to public consultations. We have developed a methodology for integrating responses from all methods to ensure that all are considered equally.

You will be able find information about upcoming consultation activities on our website and social media channels. 

We began scoping out the content of the plan

Scoping includes considering how well the existing plan is working and gathering baseline information about the area. This helps to identify our future needs and ambitions. Starting this early means we can begin preparing the new plan with a clear vision, which makes it quicker and easier to consult on the plan and make decisions about it. 

Our understanding of the needs for Bromsgrove District is informed by our existing evidence base, resident and other stakeholder feedback obtained from our Draft Development Strategy and other previous consultations as well as statutory requirements.

Using the information we have gathered along with the input from our decision makers, we have: 

• • begun to draft a vision for the area
  • started to fully understand the development requirements for our area

Additionally, we have started: 

• • to identify where new developments could be located based on extensive site assessment work and stakeholder feedback
  • to identify what additional infrastructure is required to meet the District's development needs
  • looking at what new planning policies, information or data, we would need for decision making about new developments 

We’ve shared some of this with the public through early engagement activities and published summaries on our website. 

We began a Strategic Environmental Assessment 

We’re legally required to identify, describe and evaluate any likely significant effects on the environment of: 

• • implementing the local plan
  • reasonable alternatives considering the plan’s objectives and scope

This process will consider how community, national and international environmental protection objectives and any other environmental challenges are taken into account in the plan. It will help us to predict significant environmental effects and develop ways of preventing, reducing and offsetting these. 

We noted the significant strength of local support for maintaining and protecting the environment through our engagement so far. It is therefore vital we start this work early and are transparent about how we’re doing the assessment when engaging stakeholders and communities.  

We have contracted external consultants to work with us on the SEA. We are in the process of reviewing existing SA work undertaken to date to ensure it fit for purpose as the Local Plan progresses towards Gateway 2. By collecting baseline information and identifying relevant plans and programmes we have begun to define SEA objectives which ensure the SEA will aid in delivering a sound local plan.  

Additionally, our site assessment methodology includes key environmental designations (such as SSSIs, ancient woodland and Nature Reserves) as major constraints to ensure those areas are safeguarded from inappropriate development.

How to stay up to date 

To be notified about upcoming consultation activities, please email bromsgroveplan@bromsgroveandredditch.gov.uk to be added to our consultation database.

All Local Plan updates will be published on our website under Emerging Bromsgrove District Local Plan.

Follow us on social media to see our progress in preparing the local plan. 

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