Part 13: General Schedule 7: Plan making Section 15C: Local plans Background
The measures in this section simplify the structure of the overall development plan for an area, as defined in the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004. Section 15C replaces the concept of a suite of development plan documents, as set out in former section 19 of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004, with a requirement for each local planning authority to prepare a single local plan and which defines what a local plan must, must not, and may optionally contain. The primary requirement is for the local plan to establish the amount, type, locations and timetable for the implementation of development in the local planning authority’s area.
	An express restriction is imposed such that only one local plan may be in effect at a given time in a local planning authority’s area.
	The requirement in former section 19 of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 for an authority’s development plan documents to ensure development and the use of land contributes to the mitigation of, and adaptation to, climate change, is reflected in the revised requirements for preparing a local plan, minerals and waste or supplementary plan.
	The established principle that the local plan may contain policies relating to minerals and waste matters, where the local planning authority is also responsible for minerals and waste planning, is also explicitly retained in the context of new provisions for minerals and waste plans at section 15CB.