Council Preparing Draft Local Plan For Consultation

Ashford Borough Council is preparing a new Local Plan for the borough and will soon be inviting local communities to get involved in the process.

Last night Ashford Borough Council’s Cabinet discussed and approved a draft of the Local Plan and agreed to undertake a public consultation, beginning mid-August.

The council will be consulting on a draft version of the Plan, known as a Regulation 18, for eight weeks from Monday 18 August to Monday 13 October 2025. The consultation will be live on the council’s website on 18 August, and a series of public events are planned for September and October.

A Local Plan provides the opportunity to shape the places that we live, work and socialise.  It addresses housing and employment needs and provides a series of planning policies covering many other topics such as community facilities and infrastructure, the natural and historic environment, adapting to climate change and achieving well designed places.

Although the general principle of the plan is to encourage growth within the economy of Ashford and plan housing delivery, our Local Plan will also seek to protect Ashford’s valued assets including our landscapes, heritage, and open spaces for leisure and nature.

Once adopted, the policies within a Local Plan are used as the starting point to decide planning applications for future development.

This consultation is the first formal consultation stage of the plan-making process and follows a series of community engagement events held last year entitled ‘Our Local Plan Explained’. These events were held to engage the community at the earliest stage of the process so that the community could find out what the Local Plan is, how to get involved and to understand the plan-making process.

The draft Local Plan 2042 is now emerging, and we look forward to hearing your views on the proposed direction of travel in the Local Plan.

Cllr Linda Harman, Portfolio Holder for Planning, Housing Delivery & Communications said: “This draft Local Plan sets out the Council’s direction of travel on a number of key planning matters. This first formal stage of the Local Plan process seeks residents’ views.

“Everyone is affected by planning so it’s important that we give residents and organisations an opportunity to have their say and to help shape our emerging Local Plan. I very much hope that people will engage in the process. By working together with residents and other stakeholders we can ensure that development is appropriate and delivers the affordable homes and infrastructure that our borough needs.”

The draft Local Plan consultation documents will be available to view on the council’s website from Monday 18 August. Comments on the consultation are invited via the online consultation portal or print versions of the documents will be displayed at the Council offices and Ashford, Charing, Tenterden and Wye libraries.

To support the consultation, the council is also planning on holding some ‘in- person’ community events across the borough throughout September and October 2025. These events will be followed by a virtual event for those who are unable or prefer not to attend in person.

The events are intended to be ‘drop in’ sessions open to all members of the community and residents may attend any of the events in any of the locations. More details on the events will be shared in due course.

Comments should be provided on the Council’s online portal or alternatively, print versions of the representation forms can be found on the online portal and returned via email to [email protected] or via to the Plan Making & Infrastructure Team, Spatial Planning, Ashford Borough Council, International House, Dover Place, Ashford,TN23 1HU.

Representation forms will be available at all our in-person events. All comments must be provided by 5pm on Monday 13 October 2025.

To find out more about the Local Plan please visit our Local Plan webpage – View Ashford Borough Council’s Emerging Local Plan and Design Code.