A SPECIAL meeting of Craven District Council is due to take place next month to consider the adoption of the Craven Local Plan, the area’s planning and development blueprint from now up until 2032.

After nine years in the planning, hundreds of drop-in sessions and consultations, and a three week ‘examination in public’ in October, last year, by Government planning inspector, Matthew Birkinshaw, the inspector has now published his final report.

Mr Birkinshaw, who said at the outset of last year’s hearings it was highly unlikely that the plan would be adopted in its form at the time, has now concluded that subject to a number of recommended main modifications, the Craven Local Plans is ‘sound, legally compliant, and capable for adoption by the council.’

An Extraordinary Council meeting will now take place on Tuesday, November 12 when all members of the council will consider the plan and decide whether or not to proceed with its adoption. The agenda for the meeting, together with supporting papers, will be published on the council’s website, ahead of the meeting, on Monday, November 4.

People can access the inspector’s report on the council’s website, but the time for consultation has now gone.

The main modifications, together with a number of further main modifications were subject to two periods of public consultation earlier this year, and include proposals to designate a 25-hectare area around Park Hill in Skipton as Local Green Space.

Paper copies of the report and schedule of recommended main modifications are also available to view during normal office hours at the council offices at Belle Vue Square, Broughton Road, Skipton, and at libraries in Skipton, Settle, Bentham, Ingleton, Cross Hills, Gargrave and Embsay with Eastby, and on the Supermobile library, from October 14.

The report and a schedule of recommended main modifications can be found on the council’s website at:cravendc.gov.uk/planning/planning-policy/new-local-plan/craven-district-council-local-plan-examination/