The Dorset Local Plan has switched into England’s new 30-month plan-making system after Dorset Council concluded that its long-running legacy route could no longer realistically reach the national submission deadline.
The council says changes to national planning rules, including a housing requirement that effectively doubled for Dorset, combined with the 31st December 2026 legacy-plan deadline and further evidence work, meant the old route was no longer capable of producing a sound plan in time.
Crucially, years of work are not being thrown away. Dorset says existing evidence and previous consultation responses will be carried into the new process. A new scoping consultation opened on 21st September and closes at midnight on 26th October 2026, with Gateway 1 expected on 30th November.
Years of Dorset Local Plan work are being carried across
Dorset has been working towards a unitary Local Plan since the council was created in 2019. It consulted on a draft in 2021 and carried out a further options consultation in 2025.
When the council announced the switch in July, it said the work had been supported by extensive technical studies and more than 9,000 consultation responses. That figure relates to the earlier body of Local Plan work, not just the 2025 exercise.
The council’s current scoping consultation makes the carry-over point explicit. People who responded to the 2025 consultation do not need to repeat those comments, and previous responses and supporting evidence will continue to be considered.
Dorset’s Cabinet approved the switch on 28th July 2026. The council then published its formal notice of intention to start a plan under the new system on 31st July.
The reset is procedural before it becomes spatial
The current consultation is deliberately narrow. It asks what the Local Plan should cover, its proposed vision and priorities, how Dorset should grow, what evidence will be needed and how people want to be involved.
It is not asking people to choose individual development sites, comment on detailed draft policies or debate final housing locations. Dorset says those issues come later.
The next substantive consultation is expected between March or April and April or June 2027. That stage is intended to cover proposed Local Plan content, potential policies and development sites, together with supporting evidence.
For anyone who spent time responding in 2021 or 2025, that distinction matters. The legal process has reset, but the evidence base and representations have not simply vanished with it.
Gateway 1 starts the formal 30-month clock
Dorset’s current timetable expects Gateway 1 on 30th November 2026. The council says that is the point at which the formal 30-month plan-making period begins.
Gateway 2 is currently expected in July to September 2027, followed by consultation on a full proposed Local Plan between January or March and March or May 2028. Gateway 3 is pencilled in for May to August 2028.
Submission for examination is currently expected between July and October 2028, with adoption between February and August 2029 if the plan is found sound and legally compliant.
Those are current programme windows rather than immovable dates. Dorset says it will review the timetable monthly.
Dorset shows what switching planning systems actually means
The interesting part of Dorset’s move is not simply that another council has entered the new system. It is what happens to years of legacy work when the old timetable runs out of road.
In Dorset’s case, the procedural framework changes and the formal 30-month clock starts afresh at Gateway 1, but evidence, consultation responses and earlier plan-making work are being carried forward where they remain useful.
Planning Geek has already looked at Hull’s move into the 30-month system. For the wider rules, our evergreen guide to Local Plans under the old and new systems carries the detail.
Dorset’s story is the practical version: a council can change legal route without pretending the work already done never happened.
0 Comments