This urgent decision meeting of Bromsgrove District Council was called to discuss a recommendation to extend the public consultation on the Bromsgrove District Plan – Draft Development Strategy. The consultation was recommended to be extended by another four weeks, following a request from the Overview and Scrutiny Board. The report pack includes a record of the decision taken under urgency procedures, and extracts from the Cabinet meeting on 10 September 2025.

Bromsgrove District Plan – Draft Development Strategy Consultation Extension

The council was asked to consider extending the public consultation on the Bromsgrove District Plan – Draft Development Strategy, potentially moving the deadline to 20 October 2025.

The reason for the urgency was that there was no other council meeting scheduled before the original consultation deadline of 22 September 2025. According to the report pack, extending the consultation would likely impact the overall timetable for the local plan¹. The current timetable in the Local Development Scheme can be accessed via a link in the report pack.

The report pack states that the consultation has been carried out in line with the process outlined in the report to Council on 19 June 2025. It also states that since the consultation was launched on 30 June, there have been:

• 23,137 visitors to the Commonplace website
• 1,901 different respondents
• 4,377 individual responses
• 842 emails to bromsgroveplan@bromsgroveandredditch.gov.uk
• Approximately 30-40 hard copy letters

The report pack also includes feedback from the Overview and Scrutiny Board, which considered whether to make a recommendation that Council extend the period of consultation for the Local Plan.

The report pack notes that any extension to the consultation would most likely result in an overall delay to the process and require the Local Plan timetable to be reviewed and amended. It is uncertain how this would be considered at MHCLG², who have made it clear local planning needs to continue at pace. It was also noted that any further delay would most likely not be looked on positively by some elements of the Development sector, and their response to this delay is unknown at this stage.