New Trafford Local Plan

Preparation of a new Trafford Local Plan is underway. Trafford Council recently published a public consultation on the Regulation 18 Draft Trafford Local Plan which is now closed. See previous consultation on the Local Plan below.

What is the Trafford Local Plan?

The Trafford Local Plan sets out a vision and framework of policies for the future development of Trafford, addressing needs and opportunities in Trafford and providing a framework to deliver inclusive places, new housing, economic growth, community facilities and infrastructure – as well as a basis for conserving and enhancing the natural and historic environment, mitigating and adapting to climate change, and achieving well designed places.

The Local Plan will play an important part in the future growth of Trafford. It sets planning policies and allocates sites for development, protection or for other purposes e.g. town centre boundaries or green networks. The Local Plan is part of the Statutory Development Plan for Trafford. Once adopted, it will form the basis for making decisions on planning applications.

The Council is required to keep its Local Plan up to date to retain control over the type and location of development within the Borough, and so ensuring that development across Trafford is ‘plan led’.

Trafford Council’s Executive made the decision to prepare a new Local Plan for Trafford at the Executive meeting on the 25 June 2018.

Once adopted, the new Trafford Local Plan will become the main land-use planning document for Trafford, and will form part of the Council’s overall Development Plan alongside the joint Greater Manchester Waste and Minerals plans and any adopted neighbourhood plan. The Development Plan will also include any adopted area action plans (AAPs) such as the emerging Civic Quarter AAP and Stretford AAP and any strategic planning documents for Greater Manchester. Information on the existing Development Plan can be found on the Trafford Local Plan page.

The timetable for the preparation of the Trafford Local Plan is set out in the Local Development Scheme (LDS). 

Evidence base

The Trafford Local Plan is supported by a number of evidence base documents. The evidence base will be added to as work on the Local Plan progresses and will be used to inform and support the policies in the Local Plan.

Previous consultation on the Local Plan

Trafford Council published a public consultation on the Regulation 18 Draft Local Plan which is now closed. This was carried out between 4 Febuary 2021 and 18 March 2021. Detail relating to this consultation and previous consultation can be found on the Previous Local Plan Consultations page.

Next steps

The representations received to the Draft Local Plan will be considered in detail and how they, together with national guidance and other policy/evidence documents should be used to shape the publication version of the Trafford Local Plan. It is currently anticipated that the publication version of the Trafford Local Plan will be published for consultation in Summer 2022. However, this is dependent on the progress of the PFE plan because the publication version of the Trafford Local Plan will not be consulted on until the PFE Examination has made significant progress.

Land Allocations Plan status

The Land Allocations Plan was going to be the translation of the Core Strategy policies on the ground, allocating sites and designations for specific policies.

The Council consulted on a full draft of the Land Allocations Plan for 6 weeks from 3 February 2014 to 17 March 2014.

Trafford Council’s Executive on the 25 March 2015 agreed to delay the production of the Land Allocations Plan until the production of the Greater Manchester Spatial Framework was further advanced.

As work has commenced on the new Trafford Local Plan, the Land Allocations Plan will not advance any further. Elements of the Land Allocations Plan will be incorporated as appropriate within the new Trafford Local Plan.

Data protection

Trafford Council maintains a database of consultees who wish to be kept informed about planning policy matters such as the Local Plan. Individuals or organisations that would like to be added to or removed from our consultation database should email strategic.planning@trafford.gov.uk or contact us by telephone on 0161 912 3149.

In responding to consultations your contact details will automatically be added to the consultation database (if not already held). However, the Council will not automatically notify you or future consultations unless you ‘opt in’ on your consultation response. If you do not state you want to be on the consultation database, it will be assumed that you do not wish to be notified of future consultations.

All comments received during Strategic Planning consultations will be held by the Council for the production of the document that is being consulted on and they will be available to view publicly (including on the Council’s website). Comments cannot be treated as confidential. Your personal information such as your postal and email address will not be published, but your name and organisation (if relevant) will.