Stockton Local Plan consultation opened on Friday 23rd October 2026, giving residents, businesses and landowners until 4 December to influence the borough’s new development plan. Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council has launched its first scoping exercise alongside a call for sites and a separate opportunity to nominate Local Green Space.
The council is looking for views on priorities, strategic challenges and public involvement. It is not consulting on a finished Local Plan, allocating sites or granting planning permission. The replacement plan is intended to supersede the Local Plan adopted in 2019.
For anyone with an interest in development land, I would separate the exercises immediately: a general planning response, a formal site submission and a green space nomination do different jobs. Missing the appropriate route may mean useful evidence is not put before the council at this early stage.
Stockton Local Plan: what is being consulted on?
The Stockton Local Plan scoping consultation asks what the new plan should focus on and how the council should involve communities. Its questions include local challenges, economic opportunities, infrastructure, environmental issues and the kind of evidence needed before proposed policies are drawn up.
The council says the plan will address housing, economic growth, infrastructure and environmental matters across the Stockton-on-Tees administrative area. The authority has confirmed that this will be a borough-wide plan rather than a joint Local Plan with a neighbouring council.
At this point the Stockton Local Plan process is about identifying the matters and evidence that should shape later options. An expression of concern about development, or support for growth in a particular area, is not the same as a formal objection to a draft allocation. There are no draft allocations to object to through this opening exercise.
The council’s announcement of 23 October invites individuals, businesses and voluntary organisations to take part. Councillor Richard Eglington, its Cabinet Member for Housing and Transport, said: “We welcome everyone’s views on the Local Plan”. The council has also arranged face-to-face opportunities at local libraries and community venues in November.
A separate call for development sites
There is also a Stockton Local Plan call for sites. It is intended to inform a Land Availability Assessment and the supporting evidence base, rather than to confer planning status on land. The council expressly cautions that submitting a site does not mean a proposal will be supported, permitted or allocated in the eventual plan.
The site exercise accepts suggestions for housing and care accommodation, commercial and industrial uses, mixed uses, community facilities, renewable energy, battery storage and green infrastructure. The council specifies that a submitted site must be at least 0.25 hectares, capable of more than five homes, or capable of at least 500 square metres of commercial floorspace.
These thresholds matter to smaller owners. A parcel below a quarter of a hectare is not automatically ruled out if it can meet one of the alternative capacity tests. Equally, identifying a site does not establish that it is suitable or deliverable. Access, constraints, infrastructure, landownership and evidence of availability will still need proper examination.
Landowners should use the council’s separate call for sites form, rather than assuming a comment in the general scoping questionnaire constitutes a site submission. The site portal records the closing date as 4 December 2026.
Local Green Space nominations are distinct
The Stockton Local Plan work also gives communities an opportunity to put forward valued areas for Local Green Space designation. This is not a general vote against development. The National Planning Policy Framework sets tests around proximity to the community, demonstrable special significance and the site’s local character.
The council’s nomination form asks people to identify individual sites and explain their importance. Possible evidence includes historic interest, recreation, tranquillity, landscape character and wildlife value. The council says each form should nominate one site, so separate spaces require separate submissions.
Designation is not automatic. A nomination is a request for assessment within the emerging plan, not confirmation that a site has acquired protection. Residents who wish to pursue a nomination can use the official Local Green Space portal, which also closes on 4 December.
Environmental assessment begins alongside the plan
A further strand is Strategic Environmental Assessment, usually shortened to SEA. This is the process of examining potential environmental effects as a plan develops. Stockton has opened an SEA scoping exercise, asking for comments on the intended scope of assessment before policies and allocations are finalised.
That distinction is important. Comments on potential landscape, transport, water, biodiversity or cumulative effects may help define what should be assessed. They are not findings that the emerging Stockton Local Plan already passes, or fails, an environmental test.
The council states that minerals and waste are outside the scope of this Local Plan because it is exploring a separate joint approach with neighbouring planning authorities for those subjects. Anyone responding on such matters should check which plan-making exercise is responsible.
What happens after 4 December?
The council’s published Local Plan timetable puts a first Gateway 1 self-assessment in March 2027. A consultation on proposed content and evidence is then programmed for September to October 2027, followed by the proposed-plan consultation in late 2028.
Independent examination is currently targeted for March 2029, with adoption in October 2029. Those are planned milestones, not achieved decisions or guaranteed dates. The council says the timetable will be reviewed as work progresses. Until replacement policies have their appropriate legal status, the adopted 2019 plan remains relevant alongside national policy and other material considerations.
The Stockton Local Plan scoping stage therefore offers a chance to shape the evidence and debate well before the formal proposed plan appears. It does not settle whether particular fields will be released for housing, where employment growth will be directed or what new development requirements might eventually apply.
How to make a useful response
I would start with the question the consultation is actually asking. For a business, that could be evidence about employment land needs or barriers to investment. For residents, it might be a documented local infrastructure issue. For a landowner, it may call for a separate site submission supported by clear capacity and constraint information.
A useful Stockton Local Plan response identifies a planning problem, explains its significance and offers evidence or a realistic approach. Generic objections may register concern, but evidence about transport capacity, drainage, school places, biodiversity or site availability gives plan-makers more to work with at this early stage.
The council’s consultation page links to the scoping material and explains the routes to respond. The online main questionnaire closes on Friday 4 December 2026. The council also accepts responses to the main consultation by email, and says paper documents will be available at its libraries.
For wider context on how authorities are starting under the revised plan-making process, see our coverage of Stafford’s Gateway 1 milestone. The two councils are at different stages, and Stockton’s scoping consultation must not be mistaken for a completed Gateway 1 assessment.
Original sources
The key original material is the council’s 23 October announcement, its consultation overview, the call for sites and the timetable. The distinction between consultation and adoption is fundamental: no new plan has been approved by the opening of these exercises.
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