Dorset Council is preparing a new local plan. This ‘scoping’ stage focuses on identifying the issues the local plan should address and how people would like to be involved in future consultations. The local plan will guide how Dorset changes in the future and where new homes, jobs, infrastructure, community facilities and environmental improvements should happen.
We are asking questions about:
The consultation will run from 21 September until midnight on 26 October 2026.
Please note, this consultation is not seeking views on possible sites for development, any specific policies, or presenting any information on possible sites for development at this stage. There will be further opportunities to submit sites for consideration and to share your views on site options through the local plan at a later stage.
You can view our formal Notice of Scoping Consultation.
The scoping consultation document and a draft engagement strategy are also available to view as pdfs, alongside other supporting documents:
Scoping Consultation Document
Appendix 1: National Decision-Making Policies
Appendix 2: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) Analysis
Appendix 3: Glossary
Proposed Local Plan Engagement Strategy
Strategic Environmental Assessment Scoping Report
Habitats Regulations Assessment Scoping Report
You can contact us at [email protected] or on 01305 838334.
Please note, any data collected will be retained and processed in accordance with Dorset Council's privacy policy.
Submissions may be made public. By responding to the consultation, you are accepting that your response and the information within it will be in the public domain, and that it may be disclosed if requested under the Freedom of Information Act/Environmental Information Regulations. Any published information will exclude contact information but will identify individuals by name. Please avoid including personal or sensitive information within your responses to the questions.
It is necessary for us to collect some personal information, such as your name, email address and postcode. These details are required to ensure authenticity and so that, if you wish, we can contact you about the local plan in the future. If you would like to be kept informed about the local plan, please ensure you opt in to sign up to our mailing list.
Your information will be retained by the council in line with its information retention schedule.
The local plan will be informed by ‘baseline’ data and information.
At this stage, we are not seeking views on housing numbers, proposed development sites or draft planning policies. There will be further opportunities for people to comment on these more detailed aspects of the plan next year.
Previous consultations on the local plan have included sites and strategies for meeting the development needs of Dorset, including for new homes, jobs, and infrastructure. However, changes made by the government mean that a brief reset is needed in order to follow new arrangements for producing the local plan.
New national planning regulations mean that we have to run this consultation to ask organisations for their views on what the new local plan should cover and how they would like to be involved, rather than looking into detailed issues such as development sites (anybody can respond to the consultation). There will be more opportunities to comment on sites and policies next year as work on the plan progresses.
This scoping consultation follows earlier work on the local plan. All the responses and accompanying evidence which has been received to date will be taken into account. Residents, businesses and organisations who shared their views during the council's 2025 local plan consultation do not need to resubmit those comments again. Previous responses will continue to be considered as work on the plan progresses.
The main purpose of this consultation is to understand what local issues the local plan should focus on and how people would like to be involved in future consultations. This is a requirement of new national planning regulations. There will be more opportunities to comment next year as work on the plan progresses including on sites and policies.
After completing this scoping consultation responses will be reviewed and a summary will be published. The key issues that are raised in the responses will help inform the content of the emerging local plan.
Feedback that relates to consultation on the plan making process will be considered and used to revise the Engagement Strategy that will be used throughout the plan making process.
The next formal stage in the plan making process is the ‘Gateway 1 self-assessment’. The local plan timetable sets out the anticipated dates for each stage of the preparation of the local plan.
You should respond through the online survey. This is not only the simplest way to read and comment on consultation material, but it also makes processing the responses significantly more efficient. If you are unable to submit a response via this route, you can download and complete a response form.
You can email the completed form to [email protected]. You must include your name and address as we are not able to accept anonymous responses.
The content of the consultation is designed to be fully accessible. If you need help submitting a response, or if you require the consultation material in alternative formats, contact us:
Responses must be received by midnight on 26 October 2026.
Printed copies of the consultation response form can be posted to Planning Policy, Dorset Council, County Hall, Colliton Park, Dorchester DT1 1XJ. Please mark paper correspondence “Dorset Council Local Plan scoping consultation 2026”.
The content of the consultation is designed to be fully accessible. Paper copies of the consultation document are available to view in County Hall, Dorchester during normal office hours, as well as at Dorset libraries.
Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) is a process used to evaluate the environmental impacts of a local plan, with the purpose of protecting the environment and promoting sustainable development. The SEA process occurs alongside the stages of local plan preparation and feeds into the plan at each stage, informing the decisions made whilst preparing the plan. The SEA scoping stage is the first formal stage of the SEA process, and has the purpose of identifying the key issues that the SEA assessment must cover.
Habitats Regulations Assessment (HRA) is an assessment of whether a local plan will cause harm to Habitats Sites, which are highly important areas for wildlife. The Initial Scoping Report provides an indication of the HRA issues which are likely to be relevant for the Dorset Council Local Plan. It presents the Habitats Sites which have the potential to be affected and the key HRA issues to be considered in further detail at the subsequent stages of the HRA process.
If you wish to be kept up to date on the progression of the local plan to adoption and would like to be notified about future local plan consultations and stages, please sign up to our mailing list.
For more information on the Dorset Council Local Plan, see our Local Plan webpage.
