Ipswich Borough Council Local Plan Review 2018-2036 Examination Homepage

Examination status

The Ipswich Borough Council Local Plan Review 2018-2036 (the Plan) was submitted for Examination on 10 June 2020. Planning Inspectors Karen Baker DipTP MA DipMP MRTPI and Mike Hayden BSc(Hons) DipTP MRTPI were appointed to hold an independent Examination of the Plan. The Examination Hearing sessions were held between 24 November and 16 December 2020. Consultation on Main Modifications to the Plan took place between 29 July 2021 and 23 September 2021. 

The Inspectors’ Report into the Examination of Plan was received by the Council on 17 February 2022 and published on 1 March 2022. The Inspectors have concluded that the Duty to Cooperate has been met and that, with recommended Main Modifications set out in the Appendices to the Report, the Plan satisfies the relevant legal requirements and is ‘sound’. The Inspectors’ Report and the Main Modifications are available via the embedded link here.

Accordingly, the Examination is now closed. 

A full chronology of the progress of the Examination can be found via the link to the Latest Examination News section below.

Core documents

You can view the Core Documents Library with all documents submitted and published during the examination.

This page should be viewed alongside the Submission of the Ipswich Local Plan Review 2018-2036 for Examination web page.

Latest examination news

For updates on the progress of the examination and any recent correspondence please see the Latest News page.

Examination Hearing

The Inspectors held an Examination Hearing between 24 November and 16 December 2020, to explore the main issues and questions relating to the legal compliance and 'soundness' of the Ipswich Borough Council Local Plan Review 2018-2036.

In order to be sound, the National Planning Policy Framework states that plans should be positively prepared, justified, effective and consistent with national policy.

You can find the Programme for the Hearing, Matters Issues and Questions (MIQs), and Agendas for each session under the Hearing Documents.

Further details of the Hearing are set out in the Notice of Commencement of Examination Hearings (Regulations 24) (12th October 2020) (PDF).

The Hearing sessions were held virtually over the Zoom video conferencing platform, to overcome the restrictions of the Covid-19 pandemic. The Hearing sessions were live streamed and recorded. Recordings of each session are available to view on YouTube via the links at the top of the page.

All other documents related to the Examination and the Hearing can be found in the Core Document library.