The three Councils of Chorley, Preston and South Ribble comprising Central Lancashire have reached the final stage in preparing a new local plan for the three boroughs. The Central Lancashire Local Plan 2023-2041 sets out the vision and strategic policies that will shape future development and land use for the next 15 years and will be used to make decisions on planning applications during that time.
The Central Lancashire Local Plan 2023-2041 was submitted to the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government on Monday 30th June 2025. The Plan sets out the three councils’ vision for the borough, priorities for the plan, policies and proposed housing and employment sites.
You can view the Central Lancashire Local Plan Submission document here.
You can also find the Press Release from all three councils below:
Draft Central Lancashire Local Plan submitted to the Secretary of State | Chorley
Draft Central Lancashire Local Plan submitted to the Secretary of State | South Ribble
Draft Central Lancashire Local Plan submitted to the Secretary of State - Preston City Council
If you would like any of the documents to be made available in accessible format and/or alternative language, please contact us via email or phone.
Email: centrallocalplan@chorley.gov.uk
Telephone: 01257515151
The Central Lancashire Authorities of Preston, South Ribble and Chorley are reviewing of the development plan(s) covering the three districts. This has now reached an advanced stage. We are now consulting on our Publication (Regulation 19) draft of the Local Plan. The Regulation 19 representation period is the last stage of public engagement before submitting the draft plan to the Planning Inspectorate for examination.
Consultation on this document will run from Mon 24 Feb 2025 (2pm) to Mon 14th April 2025 (midnight).
The new plan is a single planning document comprising strategic and development management policies as well as site allocations for future development across the three authorities. Once adopted, the Local Plan will guide the future growth of the Central Lancashire area. It will replace the Central Lancashire Core Strategy (adopted in 2012) and the Local Plans/Site Allocations and Development Management Policies for the three Central Lancashire Authorities (all adopted in 2015).
More information can be found here.
The latest version of the Local Development Scheme (LDS) was approved at Full Councils in April of 2024. The document can be accessed here.
The three Central Lancashire Authorities remain absolutely committed to the delivery of the new Local Plan under the existing statutory planning regime and we intend to meet the deadlines of submission of our Central Lancashire Local Plan by 30th June 2025 and adoption by 31st December 2026. The newest LDS sets out how these deadlines will be met.
We would like to thank everyone who has been involved in previous consultations and look forward to your continued engagement with the plan-making process moving forward. Proposed dates for the next consultation can be found within the new LDS.
For more information about the National Government’s proposed changes to plan-making, please see their consultation website here.
Consultation Now Closed
Thank you to everyone who responded to our Preferred Options Stage 1 Consultation and Call for Sites 4 that closed on the 26th February. We are in the process of reviewing all the comments received and continuing with our site assessments as we progress towards a Preferred Options Stage 2 Consultation. We do not have a time frame for this yet but keep an eye on the website for updates.
N.B As the consultation period has ended we are unable to accept any further representations at this time.
A number of key evidence base documents have recently been agreed by the three councils and added to the website. These included the following:
Our Central Lancashire Local Plan Issues and Options Consultation Outcome Report
The Central Lancashire Local Plan Issues and Options consultation ran for 12 weeks from Monday 18th November 2019 until Friday 14th February 2020. The consultation was in the form of an Issues and Options Document, supported by a series of detailed Annexes, 4 of which contained information on the site suggestions received for each of the 3 Councils.
We received over 1,600 responses to this consultation which have been logged and reviewed by the Central Lancashire Local Plan team. The responses received have been used in the preparation of a consultation outcomes report, and will be used to help develop the Preferred Options Document.
Alongside the main questionnaire a youth questionnaire was completed receiving over 600 responses the findings have been published in a separate report here.
