The last of Conservative led Wiltshire Council's online engagement sessions to explain more about the ongoing Local Plan review consultation has ended, with 1,321 people joining the events.
The sessions were an opportunity for people to find out more about the proposals in their local area, and to ask questions about the plans and the consultation. In total, the council held 17 events, 15 related to towns and the city in the county, and two on plans for rural areas.
Although the online engagement events have now finished, people can still view the presentations from the events, view all the consultation documents, and have their say on the consultation, which ends on 9 March. All the information, including how to submit comments, is available at: www.wiltshire.gov.uk/planning-policy-local-plan-review-consultation
Anyone without internet access can call the council on 0300 456 0100 to speak to the Spatial Planning team to find out more about the plan or to request printed copies of documents. People can also make submissions to the consultation by post.
Conservative Cllr Toby Sturgis, Cabinet Member for Planning, said:
As COVID restrictions mean that we couldn't hold face to face engagement events, this was the first time we have tried these online engagement sessions for a large scale consultation, and they have been a real success.
The number of attendees to these online sessions has exceeded the numbers we would usually get at similar face to face events, and as people are able to ask questions anonymously online, we have had much greater open engagement.
The people who attended the sessions made some very interesting and valuable points about the Local Plan, and all questions from the events will be answered and published on our website in the next two weeks, in plenty of time before the end of the consultation.
The consultation is open until 9 March, and we want to hear from as many people in the county as possible, so please do take some time out to have your say. Feedback we receive at this stage will help to shape the next 15 years of development in Wiltshire, so it is really important that people let us know what they think.
This consultation is taking place alongside one on the Gypsies and Travellers Plan, which will look to allocate land for travellers in sustainable locations to meet their permanent and temporary accommodation needs up until 2036. To find out more about the Gypsies and Travellers Plan consultation, which also closes on 9 March, and to have their say, people should go to www.wiltshire.gov.uk/planning-gypsy-travellers
