Gateway 1: commencement | Shropshire Council

How we got ready to prepare the next Local Plan

Shropshire Council gave notice of its intention to begin making our next Local Plan on 8 May 2026.

Shropshire Council started preparing the next Local Plan for Shropshire on 30 September 2026. This followed a mandatory period of ‘scoping’ between May and September 2026. This document shows how the council has prepared itself for commencing plan-making.

Government policy states that every local authority should adopt their next Local Plan within 30 months of their starting date. This will ensure that every local authority has an up-to-date Local Plan that responds to the needs of their area and their communities.

This document explains what the council did to get ready to begin our 30-month plan-making timetable. We also provide links to further information, and identify where you can get updates on the preparation of our next Local Plan.

We published a plan-making timetable

Our plan-making timetable, first published on 7 May 2026, shows when we expect to carry out the different stages and activities to prepare our next Local Plan. The timetable shows everyone how we aim to adopt the next Local Plan in accordance with the 30-month timeframe. We will keep this timetable updated as we make more progress with our plan-making.

The plan-making timetable is the ‘30-month roadmap’ to the adoption of our next Local Plan. It details key milestones within the plan-making process, including decision points, ‘Gateway’ stages, and periods of engagement.

Under the new plan-making arrangements, there are three Gateway stages. This self-assessment checklist represents Gateway 1 which is required to begin the 30-month plan-making and adoption process. Gateways 2 and 3 include discussions with the Planning Inspectorate about key aspects of the Local Plan. These Gateways are combined with important stages of engagement to allow communities and other stakeholders the opportunity to contribute to plan-making.

To help deliver our next Local Plan within 30 months:

The council’s interim service director for place shaping in consultation with the portfolio holder for planning have the authority to update the plan-making timetable to manage the process and to avoid delays
A consultation programme has been established to undertake appropriately timed, targeted and efficient engagement, including a digital-led approach
A Housing Overview and Scrutiny Committee has been established to help direct and support the plan-making process

We know some of the key milestones on our ‘30-month roadmap’ may need to change to positively respond to engagement feedback, new evidence, national policy change, and the progress of wider infrastructure or environmental assessment work. To allow us to respond to such changes, whilst seeking to achieve the 30-month timeframe, we have some flexibility regarding the specific timing of key milestones in the overall process.

In this way, our plan-making timetable provides confidence in the deliverability timescales of our next Local Plan, whilst allowing for monitoring and adjustments to the programme where necessary. For this reason, we commit to keeping our plan-making timetable under review.

Our plan-making timetable can be found on our 'Timetable and processes' page.

We established project management and governance arrangements

Preparing our next Local Plan will be a complex process. In addition to our communities, there are many stakeholders across the council and from other organisations involved in the plan-making process. Thinking early about how the work is planned, managed and approved helps us manage our progress and meet our timescales. It also helps us anticipate and manage any risks to the adoption of our next Local Plan within the 30-month timeframe.

We have prepared a project initiation document setting out our project management and governance arrangements. It includes details of what we are trying to achieve, arrangements for decision-making, our resourcing, our provisions for engagement, and any risks and mitigation options to ensure our next Local Plan is adopted on time.

We are committed to enhancing our project management arrangements, and to keeping our project initiation document under review.

Our project initiation document can be found on our 'Timetable and processes' page.

We planned how we will consult

Public engagement is essential so that our next Local Plan represents the needs of our communities. We want people to have their say in a way that works for them, so they can influence the way the area develops. By planning this early in the process, we can ensure our communities and other stakeholders are aware in advance and can ‘get involved’ from the start of our plan-making.

We have undertaken a Local Plan ‘scoping’ consultation, between 20 May 2026 and 15 July 2026, to gather views on what our next Local Plan could contain and how we propose to engage effectively at key stages of our plan-making.

Informed by the responses to the Local Plan ‘scoping’ consultation, we have established our key engagement parameters for the remainder of the plan-making process. These are:

Early and appropriately timed engagement – our engagement began before the formal commencement of our plan-making and will continue through the plan-making process. Future engagement will be structured around two further specific and mandatory Local Plan consultations set out in the plan-making timetable, supported by evidence which justifies the proposals, and seeks to enable everyone to provide effective responses to these key consultations
Proportionate, targeted and inclusive – we will tailor our approach to engagement to both the plan-making topics and to the different audiences amongst our communities and other stakeholders
Efficient, accessible and well publicised – we will use a digital-led approach to publicise and facilitate access to our engagements. This will be complemented by other means of engagement
Clear and transparent – we will clearly explain the purpose of each stage of our consultation programme, what our proposals are at each stage, what is being asked, and how to respond

Further information on our engagement parameters is provided in our project initiation document, which can be found on our 'Timetable and processes' page.

We began scoping the content of our next Local Plan

Scoping includes considering how well the existing Local 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 next Local Plan with a clear vision, making it quicker and easier to consult on the plan and make decisions about the plan content and programme.

We undertook a Local Plan ‘scoping’ consultation, between 20 May 2026 and 15 July 2026, to gather views on what our next Local Plan could contain and how we propose to effectively engage at key stages of our plan-making. This included:

The key priorities for the vision and measurable outcomes for the delivery of the next Shropshire Local Plan
The key considerations for identifying a spatial strategy to manage the level and distribution of development in Shropshire
The approach to identifying and assessing potential site allocations
Matters that would benefit from being addressed by local planning policies to complement new national decision-making policies
Engagement priorities to ensure our communities and other stakeholders are aware of the process and may ‘get involved’ from the start of our plan-making
The evidence required to support the next Local Plan

This consultation was supported by a Local Plan ‘scoping’ document and series of questions for our communities and other stakeholders, which are available on our Get Involved website.

Responses to this consultation will inform the preparation of our next Local Plan and the evidence that supports it.

We are also continuing to assemble the baseline information and wider evidence base to inform the preparation of our next Local Plan. Evidence base documents are available on our 'Evidence Base' page.

Ongoing monitoring information, which will also inform the preparation of our next Local Plan, is available on our 'Monitoring' page.

We began a Strategic Environmental Assessment

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

Implementing our next Local Plan on its adoption
Reasonable alternative options, taking into account our next Local 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 our next Local Plan. It will help us to predict significant environmental effects and develop ways of preventing, reducing and offsetting them.

It is important that we begin this work early and are transparent about how we are carrying out the assessment when engaging with our communities and other stakeholders.

Reflecting this, we have undertaken ‘screening’ which confirmed the need to undertake Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) to inform our next Local Plan. This ‘screening’ forms part of the evidence on our 'Evidence Base' page.

We have also undertaken a review of baseline information (plans and programmes which may influence our next Local Plan and environmental data for Shropshire) and key environmental issues and opportunities in Shropshire. Informed by this review, we have proposed a series of SEA objectives and an assessment methodology to be used to assess the likely environmental effects of our next Shropshire Local Plan.

This ‘scoping’ process is summarised within an SEA scoping report, subject of consultation between 11 September 2026 and 21 October 2026. This scoping report can be found on our 'SEA Scoping Consultation' page.

How to stay up to date

To receive updates on plan-making in Shropshire, you can register for inclusion on our Planning Policy Consultation Database.

Latest news and information on the progress of our next Local Plan will be provided as planning news on our Planning Policy homepage.

Local Plan consultations will be hosted on our Get Involved website.