1. Introduction
1.1. Engagement and consultation with the community and stakeholders is an essential part of preparing a new local plan for West Suffolk. The council wants to ensure that residents, community organisations, businesses, developers and infrastructure providers are involved in shaping the future of West Suffolk.
1.2. West Suffolk is preparing a new local plan that will guide growth in the district to 2045. The local plan will set out a vision, spatial strategy for growth, including the scale of new housing, employment and infrastructure alongside other policies that will continue to protect the environment and support local communities.
1.3. This strategy sets out how West Suffolk Council will engage with the community and key stakeholders in preparing the West Suffolk Local Plan 2045. It sets out who we will engage with and at what stages, how we will engage and how consultation responses will be considered.
1.4. The community engagement strategy replaces the local plan engagement section of the statement for community involvement (SCI) (December 2018).
1.5. The strategy supports West Suffolk Council’s wider commitment to create and maintain effective working relationships with all sectors of the community, based on trust, openness and constructive challenge, as outlined in its strategic priorities 2024-2028.
1.6. Feedback received from our scoping consultation undertaken in June 2026 has helped inform this strategy. A summary of responses received relating to engagement will be published on our website.
1.7. The preparation of this strategy and our approach to community engagement accords with relevant legislation and guidance including:
- National Planning Policy Framework (2026)
- The Town and Country Planning (Local Planning)(England) Regulations 2026
- The Equality Act 2010
- GOV.UK - Engaging the public when preparing a local plan
- GOV.UK - Digital community engagement toolkit for planning consultations
1.8. This is a live document and the community and stakeholder feedback received at each consultation stage will help us refine our approach to engagement to ensure the strategy remains effective.
If you wish to be notified of future local plan consultations and receive updates at other key points in the process, please register on our consultation system to join our local plan database.
Forward to 2. Purpose of engagement