Crawley 2029

Planning affects us all. The homes we live in, the places where we work, the open spaces where we relax and the roads we travel on are all a result of planning decisions that have been made.

The way that the whole town develops in the future will be affected by planning. Crawley Borough Council has started work on a new local plan that will help to guide development in Crawley over 15 years from 2014-2029.

Watch a short video of Councillor Claire Denman explaining the story behind Crawley 2029 .

From January to March 2012 we asked residents, community groups, businesses and other stakeholders to let us know about the key issues facing the town now, and what they would like to see here in the future.

The council held consultation events across the town for people to tell us how they see Crawley’s future on topics including housing, protecting open spaces, transport, infrastructure, the economy and neighbourhoods.

Hundreds of people responded during the six-week consultation period, and 533 surveys were completed. We are now working through all of the responses and will report back with residents’ views in the next few weeks.

Local Plan Programme timetable

The new Local Plan Programme, known as Crawley 2029, began with a revised Issues and Options consultation in January/February 2012. The feedback from this will help us write a more detailed document, known as the Preferred Strategy. From this, a final draft document, the Submission is created, which is subject to independent examination. Finally, the Government will appoint an inspector to lead a formal public examination to see if the local plan is ‘sound’. Anyone who provided feedback during the Submission consultation may speak at the examination.

Background to this review

The council began the first stage of the Core Strategy Review (‘Issues and Options’) for consultation in May 2009. The consultation invited feedback on 13 topic papers that summarised key issues facing Crawley over the coming years. You can read summaries of the representations made and officer responses in the Core Strategy Review Consultation Database . As part of the consultation, a Stakeholders Workshop was held in May 2009.

Following the Issues and Options stage it was anticipated that Preferred Strategy consultation would be undertaken in summer 2010. However, a number of uncertainties resulted in the council needing to revisit its timetable. The updated programme has been designed to take into account the Secretary of State’s issuing of a North East Sector decision (and subsequent challenge period), and allows for the objectives and requirements of the Localism Act to be reflected in the new Local Plan document which will eventually replace the Core Strategy.

If you would like any further information please contact the Forward Planning team on 01293 438624.