Society welcomes planning report

ROYAL BOROUGH: Maidenhead Civic Society has welcomed a report highlighting the need to improve communication with the community when it comes to planning.

A study from the University of Reading has looked into Statements of Community Involvement (SCI) – the document which sets out how the public will be involved in the preparation of new Local Plan documents.

This comes as the council is working on its own Borough Local Plan.

The study of 160 SCIs found that many of them read as though they were written ‘to fulfil an obligation to central Government’, with ‘little or no community involvement’ and were also an ‘under-utilised and under-performing tool in the planning system’.

It concludes that if SCIs can be refreshed and reframed, they could be an important element in proactive plan-making.

Maidenhead Civic Society said it welcomes the report, as an upto-date SCI is one way of ensuring ‘meaningful public engagement’ early in the process.

The council said its own SCI ‘commits the council to a clear and consistent approach’ that ‘actively involves’ people in planning and development.

“By setting out how the community, including local residents, groups, businesses and organisations will be engaged in the planning process, the council's decisions will be both effective and robust,” a spokesman said.