Elmbridge Borough Council has formally announced the start of a new planning programme for its Surrey borough, publishing a statutory notice for the Elmbridge Local Plan 2039 on 16th October 2026. The plan will eventually determine how housing, employment, infrastructure and protected land are addressed across places including Esher, Weybridge, Walton, Molesey and Cobham.
This is a notice of intention under regulation 19 of the Town and Country Planning (Local Planning) (England) Regulations 2026. It is not an adopted Local Plan, a final set of land allocations or planning permission. The council expects to clear Gateway 1 and enter the main 30-month preparation period on 16th February 2027.
The notice matters because Elmbridge had to abandon its previous draft Local Plan after difficulties at independent examination. Landowners, neighbours and developers now have a new timetable to watch, while the questions about housing land, the Green Belt and infrastructure will have to be worked through afresh rather than settled by the withdrawn draft.
What has happened to the Elmbridge Local Plan?
The council’s 16th October statutory notice identifies the council as the plan-making authority, names the new document and confirms that it will cover the borough’s administrative area. The notice is a prescribed early step in England’s reformed Local Plan system, rather than the stage at which individual sites are selected.
That distinction is important because the word commence does not mean that the entire new plan is already in effect. The Elmbridge Local Plan must pass a series of procedural and evidence tests, proceed through consultation and examination, and eventually be adopted before becoming the new statutory development plan.
Under the 2026 system, Gateway 1 is designed to examine whether the authority is ready to undertake formal plan preparation. Elmbridge currently expects that gateway in February 2027. That is the council’s published expectation, not confirmation that the gateway has been passed or that the later programme cannot change.
Residents wishing to inspect the notice can do so on the council’s website, at its Civic Centre in Esher or at the libraries listed in the notice. The council also directs readers to its Local Development Scheme, which records the plan timetable.
Why Elmbridge is starting again
The predecessor was the draft Elmbridge Local Plan 2037, submitted for examination in August 2023. During the 2024 examination, the Inspector identified substantial concerns about whether the submitted strategy met the relevant soundness tests, particularly following consideration of the spatial strategy, housing need and the approach to site allocations and the Green Belt.
According to the council’s new-plan background, the Inspector’s September 2024 interim findings concluded that the draft plan was unsound as submitted. There was discussion of further work and a possible pause, but the authority ultimately decided at Full Council on 26th February 2025 to withdraw the draft plan from examination.
The withdrawal was not the adoption of an alternative strategy. Nor should any allocation or boundary in that abandoned document be treated as newly approved by the latest notice. The council’s existing adopted policies remain relevant to present planning decisions until legally replaced, subject to their weight under current national policy and the particular application circumstances.
The new Elmbridge Local Plan therefore represents a fresh plan-making route. The history explains why land supply and environmental choices are likely to attract close scrutiny, without prejudging how the authority will resolve those issues in a forthcoming draft.
Housing sites, Green Belt and the evidence still needed
The council’s plan work programme has included updating its land availability assessment, housing needs evidence, employment and retail studies and other background material. Its published evidence pages include material on employment, retail and flood risk. Evidence is a basis for future policy choices, not a site allocation in itself.
Elmbridge has also referred to a joint Green Belt review with neighbouring Runnymede and Spelthorne. A study can assess how land performs against policy purposes, but it does not itself take land out of the Green Belt. Changing a development-plan designation involves a separate plan-making and adoption process, with consultation and examination where required.
For landowners promoting sites, the useful question is whether a parcel has been properly considered against the council’s evidence and emerging site-selection methodology. For communities, it is whether the eventual preferred strategy deals credibly with housing need, infrastructure capacity, flood risk, biodiversity and the consequences of the alternatives.
At this stage the notice does not publish a new housing target, endorse any particular Green Belt release or promise the delivery of a named scheme. Those are matters for later evidence and policy documents. Treating a survey, land review or early map as a settled planning decision would go beyond what has actually happened.
Gateway 1 in February 2027: what comes next?
The immediate date to note is the council’s expected 16th February 2027 Gateway 1. The reformed procedure aims for a 30-month main plan-making period following the prescribed preparation steps. That period should not be confused with a promise that a new plan will be in force 30 months after the October notice.
Earlier Elmbridge timetables were produced before subsequent programme changes and before this new notice. Anyone acting on behalf of a landowner or preparing consultation representations should check the current council Local Plan hub rather than rely on an old projected consultation month.
A notice of intention is also different from a public consultation inviting objections to a full draft strategy. Formal opportunities to comment on emerging policy, sites and the plan’s soundness will arise at the relevant stages. Residents can follow the evidence as it is published and raise specific, evidenced points when that engagement opens.
For a fuller explanation of the different plan stages and why the new 2026 system has gateways, see Planning Geek’s guide to Local Plans and its explanation of examinations.
What residents and developers should do now
A person seeking planning permission today still needs to work from the adopted development plan, national policy and any other material considerations. An announcement that the Elmbridge Local Plan is being prepared is not an automatic reason to refuse an application, grant a scheme or put existing planning controls on hold.
For residents who objected to the earlier plan, the 2025 withdrawal did not resolve every disagreement about the future of Elmbridge. It reset the procedure. The new strategy will have to address the problems identified in the earlier examination and show how the council has assessed its reasonable choices.
For developers and site promoters, the window before Gateway 1 is useful for checking the evidence base, site information and constraints. However, no applicant should describe an unallocated parcel as an adopted allocation or assume that the first gateway approves a development proposal.
The central news is a procedural change with real future consequences: the Elmbridge Local Plan 2039 now has a formal start notice and a published first gateway expectation. Whether a particular neighbourhood or site is affected will depend on the consultation documents and policies that follow, not on the notice alone.
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