From 2pm on Thursday 14 January Hart District Council stopped the Local Plan Consultation and removed the online response form from the website.
Leader of Hart District Council, Cllr Stephen Parker, said:
“We have found errors in the consultation material for our Local Plan Consultation. In order not to undermine the consultation process and to maintain a fair and transparent procedure, we have taken the decision to stop the consultation and have ceased our online response form.
I apologise to the residents and businesses of Hart for the inconvenience caused and I would like to reassure the public that by working with my colleagues to rectify the issues discovered, we will create a robust consultation going forward.”
Updated at 9am Thursday 28 January:
Q&A regarding the decision to stop the Local Plan Consultation
Why have you stopped the consultation?
We have found errors in the consultation material. In order to prevent an unbalanced consultation process and to maintain a fair and transparent procedure, we have taken the decision to withdraw the consultation and have ceased our online response form.
We sincerely apologise to those residents and businesses of Hart who have already responded for the inconvenience caused.
Will you be running the consultation again?
Yes. We anticipate the new consultation will run from early Feb into mid March 2016.
Will the questions change?
The questions will not change. It is essentially a re-run of the original consultation but the information will be reviewed to ensure it is correct and clear.
I responded to the stopped consultation. Will my answers be valid for this new consultation?
If you provided your contact details to us then we will contact you directly with further information.
If you only provided your name and postcode we will be unable to contact you. In these circumstances you can either contact us and we can provide you with further information or you can complete the new consultation response form.
Will you contact people who filled in the original Local Plan consultation?
We will contact all respondents who provided an email address and confirmed that they would like to be notified of future Local Plan consultations.
How can I access/find the new consultation response form?
The response form will be available on our website. We will have paper copies available from our Civic Offices and from Parish Council offices.
What impact does this have on your timescale of the Local Plan Project?
We will do all we can to prevent or minimise any delays. We still aim to consult on a draft plan in summer 2016.
Will you send out information to all residents about the new consultation?
Yes. It is our intention to send a corrected summary leaflet to all households in Hart.
