The Planning Act requires that local authorities carry out appropriate community consultation during the preparation and review of all the local development documents they decide to prepare, and in dealing with planning applications. Trafford adopted its Statement of Community Involvement (SCI) in July 2006. Since this time changes set out in the Planning Act 2008 and the new Planning Policy Statement 12 (PPS12) required the updating of the adopted SCI so that it is consistent with the new legislation.

The new Planning system is intended to be more open, accessible and responsive to community concerns and aspirations. Some of the consultation methods that the Council are proposing to use are tried and tested whilst others, such as using an interactive website, the Citizens' Panel, Focus Groups and Community TV are new and innovative.

We want to ensure that Trafford's diverse communities have a range of opportunities to play their part in the new system. In particular, we want to reach out to those who would not normally get involved by making material available in different formats and languages.

Consultation was undertaken (on a draft SCI review) for a six week period from Monday 23 November 2009 until Monday 11 January 2010. All representations made have been taken into account in preparing the SCI Review (February 2010) for adoption.

Statement of Community Involvement