Fareham Local Plan consultation extended to 23rd October

Fareham Local Plan consultation deadlines have been extended, giving residents, developers and businesses until Friday 23rd October 2026 to comment on the first stages of the borough’s replacement plan. Fareham Borough Council announced the extension on 9th October, after previously advertising a 2nd October closing date.

The extension covers the Local Plan Scoping Consultation and the draft Engagement Strategy consultation. Together they ask what the plan should address and how people should be involved as the council prepares policies and considers locations for future growth. This is an opportunity to influence the process, not a consultation on a completed set of site allocations.

A separate Call for Sites still closes on 31st October. The council’s published timetable also gives 31st October as the deadline for its Gateway 1 self-assessment summary. That leaves only eight days between the revised response deadline and the planned initial gateway milestone, although the council has not said that the extension changes its wider plan programme.

Fareham Local Plan deadlines: what has changed?

The council’s 9th October press release is explicit about the two extended exercises. Both the scoping and draft engagement consultations remain open until 23rd October. The original 24th August announcement invited responses by 2nd October, so anyone using an earlier notice should now work to the revised date.

Its Executive Member for Planning and Development explained the rationale in the latest statement: We have extended the consultation to 23 October. The statement says the additional time is intended to let more people examine the material and respond. It does not amount to a policy decision about which land will be allocated or how many dwellings a particular site can accommodate.

There is a potential source of confusion because the council also invites views on sustainability appraisal and strategic environmental assessment scoping material. The consultation hub lists that exercise separately. The 9th October release expressly extends the scoping consultation and draft Engagement Strategy; it does not expressly announce a changed deadline for every other related exercise. Respondents to those documents should check their own notices before relying on 23rd October.

What the scoping consultation is asking

The new plan is intended to guide housing, employment, infrastructure, community facilities and environmental protection across the borough. Fareham describes the current stage as one for identifying the planning issues, opportunities and challenges that matter most, rather than choosing preferred allocations immediately. The authority also wants views on its approach to engaging different groups during the years of plan preparation.

For a landowner, an effective response might explain a specific development constraint, infrastructure opportunity or unmet local need supported by location-specific evidence. A business may identify employment floorspace needs, servicing issues or a potential redevelopment opportunity. Communities may highlight access to facilities, public transport, landscape character, flood risk, open space or cumulative effects of growth.

The consultation cannot rewrite national housing requirements. The council’s public engagement portal expressly distinguishes matters on which local responses can influence choices, including the location of development and necessary infrastructure, from national housing targets that cannot be altered through this exercise. Responses are more valuable when directed to decisions the plan-makers can actually take.

Call for Sites retains the 31st October deadline

The separate Call for Sites is open to landowners, developers, agents, businesses, organisations and residents. It accepts suggestions not only for housing and employment land but also for community facilities, renewable energy, recreation, open space, biodiversity enhancement and conservation. Fareham asks that sites be submitted by 31st October 2026.

Submitting a site is not the same as securing a planning allocation. The council says submissions will be assessed against policy requirements, environmental constraints, access, transport, infrastructure, deliverability, viability and effects on communities. It expressly cautions that nomination neither guarantees allocation nor signals support for development. An appraisal should therefore distinguish realistic future potential from a speculative promotion.

Anyone promoting a site should make the boundary and proposed use clear, identify ownership or control where relevant, and supply evidence of access, constraints and likely delivery. Incomplete information may limit the usefulness of a submission. A separate representation to the general scoping consultation can explain the strategic planning case, but it should not be assumed to replace a properly made Call for Sites submission.

Gateway 1 creates a compressed end-of-month timetable

Fareham’s Local Plan timetable, updated on 2nd October, schedules publication of its Gateway 1 self-assessment summary by 31st October. It also gives the Regulation 20 representation deadline as 23rd October and identifies a 30-month plan-making process with defined gateways. The dates should be read as the council’s published programme, not proof that each subsequent stage will occur unchanged.

The timetable says the replacement plan would cover at least 15 years to 2044, superseding the existing Fareham Local Plan 2037 and the Welborne Plan when adopted. Until a new plan acquires the relevant statutory status, the adopted development plan and applicable national policies remain the starting point for decisions. Early consultation material should not be treated as an adopted development-management policy.

The published forward schedule puts consultation on content and evidence in June and July 2027, the proposed draft plan in February and March 2028, submission for independent examination in October 2028, and possible adoption consideration in May 2029. Those milestones matter for promoters deciding when to commission ecological surveys, transport work, infrastructure studies and housing or employment evidence.

The eight-day gap is operationally noteworthy. A shorter interval may make prompt, well-structured consultation submissions particularly helpful to officers compiling the gateway material. However, no published statement establishes how many responses the council anticipates, whether it will require a timetable amendment or how comments received close to the deadline will affect the self-assessment. Those matters should not be presented as facts.

How Fareham will handle responses, including AI assistance

The Have Your Say page explains that the council is using specialist planning software with AI-assisted functions. These can support the analysis of large volumes of representations, draft summaries, identification of themes, sentiment analysis, keyword suggestions and identification of personal information that may require redaction. The council says officers review and, where necessary, amend the outputs.

That is relevant to consultation practice, but it is not a claim that automated systems will decide planning applications or allocate sites. Fareham explicitly states that AI does not make decisions. The practical lesson for a respondent is to label each issue, explain its land-use significance, give the supporting evidence and state the change sought, rather than submitting a long general objection with no clear planning proposition.

For developers with several candidate sites, separate location-specific submissions will generally help avoid mixing unrelated constraints and aspirations. Where a submission relies on a study, it should identify the document and explain the conclusion relevant to the emerging plan. Local groups should similarly distinguish objections to development in principle from identified consequences that plan policies or infrastructure phasing may be able to address.

Why the Fareham timetable matters beyond the borough

The reform of plan-making procedures is affecting councils across England at different stages. Planning Geek has separately reported Portsmouth’s Local Plan examination and housing shortfall debate, a distinct process from Fareham’s initial scoping exercise. Arguments about cross-boundary housing and infrastructure needs should be supported by the evidence and arrangements relevant to each authority, rather than assuming neighbouring plans share the same timetable.

Housing delivery evidence is another separate consideration. Planning Geek’s Housing Delivery Test guide explains one element of the existing national policy framework, but the test should not be confused with a council’s choice of land allocations in a new local plan. The two can interact without being interchangeable.

What to do before 23rd and 31st October

Respondents should first identify which exercise they are participating in. The general scoping and draft Engagement Strategy responses close on 23rd October under the council’s revised announcement. The Call for Sites requires its own submission by 31st October. Anyone dealing with sustainability appraisal scoping should confirm its specific deadline directly with the council.

The 9th October press release, consultation page, Call for Sites instructions and published plan timetable are the primary records. Fareham provides information at borough libraries and its Civic Offices and gives its Planning Strategy team as the contact for assistance. The next practical test will be whether the council publishes its Gateway 1 self-assessment on the programme it currently advertises.