Hart Local Plan 2044 Engagement Strategy - Who will we engage with?

There are a range of stakeholders who will have an interest in shaping the new Local Plan. These include the local community such as residents, businesses and interest groups as well as infrastructure providers, neighbouring local authorities, Hampshire County Council and national organisations such as the Environment Agency, Natural England and Historic England. 

The Council planning policy team maintains a Local Plan consultation database comprising statutory consultees (specified bodies which the Council is required to consult by law) and other organisations and individuals who have requested to be notified of Local Plan consultations in Hart District. This is a live database, which means that stakeholders and interested parties can ask to be added or removed at any time. Organisations and individuals on the database will automatically be notified of any Hart Local Plan consultations. We would encourage interested parties to sign up to the Local Plan database

Specific and General (statutory) consultees

Regulations set out the consultees that the Council has a statutory duty to consult during the preparation of the Local Plan. These are defined as ‘Specific’ and ‘General’ consultees and are identified in Appendix 1. 

Specific consultees include organisations such as Natural England, the Environment Agency, neighbouring local authorities, Town and Parish Councils and certain infrastructure providers. 

General consultation bodies are not specifically identified in Regulations but are defined as including voluntary bodies, bodies representing those with a protected characteristic under the Equality Act 2010 and those representing business interests in the area. As these cover a wide range of organisations these are not listed individually in Appendix 1. 

The Hart community

In addition to the Specific and , eneral consultees, an important part of preparing the Local Plan is through engagement with residents and the local community. Some of this will be captured through consultation with the general consultees mentioned above, where, for example they are representative local community groups or town and parish ouncils. 

The Hart Local Plan Baseline Information Report sets out a range of background data on the make-up of Hart’s population including age breakdowns, information on ethnicity, health and religion, levels of employment and information on housing tenures.  This will be used to help understand the make-up of the community to help tailor consultation and engagement methods and to try and ensure that views received are representative of the whole community.

Cross-boundary consultees

Local planning authorities are expected to collaborate across their boundaries, on strategic planning matters including on potential unmet development needs from neighbouring areas. The Council will therefore continue to work closely with neighbouring Local Planning authorities and other prescribed organisations regarding cross-boundary strategic planning priorities and areas of common interest. This cooperation primarily taking place through on-line meetings and emails.

For some of these consultees, such as Hampshire County Council, neighbouring planning authorities, infrastructure providers and Government agencies, engagement has already been taking place and is more ongoing in nature throughout the plan-making process, rather than confined to the three main consultation stages.

Less represented groups

We recognise that some groups of residents find it harder to engage with Local Plan consultations than others. This may be due to a range of factors that can create a barrier to responding. These barriers can include time, accessibility, language or lack of incentive. 

Groups which are likely to be under-represented can include persons with disabilities, those with a first language which is not English, ethnic groups and other groups which represent minorities within Hart District, including Gypsies and Travellers and Travelling Showpeople, those on lower incomes, those with limited or no access to the internet, and persons within the younger and older age brackets. Past Council experience suggests that these groups are less likely to engage with and provide representations within a formal Local Plan consultation setting. 

We set out some ways in which we will seek to enable responses from those who find it harder to engage in Section 5 of this report. 

Business

The District has approximately 4,500 businesses (2026) spread across the towns, villages and rural areas. To seek the views of those that contribute to the local economy, we will notify businesses on our database and representative groups as well as raising awareness of consultations within the business community. We will seek input from the Council’s Economic Development Officer to support this.