Draft New Local Plan early engagement

Introduction

Before we conducted the draft new Local Plan consultation (Regulation 18), we carried out an early engagement survey. We had over 1200 responses which is fantastic and will help us to shape the new local plan for Hastings for the next 20 years. We asked you to let us know what your top three priorities for us would be to focus on out of a choice of five plus any other ideas you had.

What did you tell us?

You said the priorities for you were:

Top priority - 'Achieve and sustain a thriving economy and create new job opportunities' 454 respondents had this as their number 1 and a further 483 as either their second or third priority.

Second priority - 'Improve public health and wellbeing' 291 respondents had this as their number one with another 443 as their second or third priority.

Third priority - 'Protect and celebrate the town's natural and historic environment'. 197 respondents had this as their highest priority and a further 518 as their second or third priority.

Fourth priority - 'Deliver homes that people can access and want in well-designed neighbourhoods' 137 respondents had this as their highest priority with a further 406 as their second or third priority.

Fifth priority - 'Address climate change and meet our zero carbon ambitions' 156 respondents as this as their number one with 285 having it as their second or third priority.

All the themes will be considered as part of the new Local Plan but we will focus on those you have said are your priorities.

Others - We had 86 respondents having different ideas as their number 1 priority and a further 149 with other suggestions as their second or third priorities. We will look at these in more detail as we progress the plan. Some of these were not related to the Local Plan but will be useful for looking at how we can improve council services or may be passed on to those organisations responsible for the issues raised. 

What happens next?

The early engagement feedback along with input from statutory agencies and organisations that we must consult has been used to draw together the first draft of the new Local Plan. The draft plan consultation was carried out for 8 weeks, and ended on 24 March 2021. You can find more information and view the plan on our new draft Local Plan page.

Our interim consultation statement sets out we have engaged with people and organisations so far to develop the first draft of the new Local Plan.  The consultation statement also includes a summary of the comments we received on the Hastings Town Centre and Bohemia Area Action Plan and how these have been used to inform the new draft Local Plan.