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Latest News and Updates

This is where the News and Updates on the Examination will be posted.

14 March 2023

The Epping Forest District Local Plan 2011 to 2033 was adopted at an Extraordinary Meeting of the Council on 6 March 2023.

The adopted Local Plan along with the associated Policies Map, Adoption Statement, Habitats Regulations Assessment Adoption Statement, Sustainability Appraisal Adoption Statement and associated Sustainability Appraisal Reports can be viewed on the Council’s website.


16 February 2023

The Inspector’s Final Report has now been delivered to the council and can be accessed below:

Delivery of the final Report marks the formal closure of the Examination and any queries on Local Plan matters should now be directed to Epping Forest District Council.


16 December 2022

The representations received in response to the consultation on the Further Main Modifications have been uploaded and can be viewed here A list of the representations received by Main Modification will be available on the further main modifications responses page shortly.


9 December 2022

The consultation on the further Main Modifications to the emerging Epping Forest District Local Plan closed at 5pm on 9 December 2022.


28 October 2022

The Local Plan further Main Modifications consultation has started and runs for 6 weeks to 9 December.


28 October 2022

The Council has now replied to the Inspector’s note and appendix of 16 June 2022, and their response can be viewed in the Examination Documents at ED144 and ED144A.


20 October 2022

An update on the timings of the Council’s response to the Inspector’s note and appendix is available and can be viewed at ED143 in the examination documents.


22 July 2022

The Council have written to the Inspector with details of the timing for their response to his letter and schedule of 16 June 2022 (ED141). The Council’s note can be viewed at ED142 in the examination documents.


16 June 2022

The Inspector’s note and schedule referred to in his letter to the Council of 23 May (ED140) are now available and can be viewed at ED141 in the Examination documents.


24 May 2022

Following Inspector Bore’s appointment, he has written to the Council setting out the next steps in the examination process. His letter can be viewed at ED140 on the examination documents page.


6 May 2022

Inspector Jonathan Bore MRTPI has been appointed to complete the Epping Forest Local Plan Examination with immediate effect. For work reasons, Inspectors Louise Phillips and Matthew Birkinshaw are no longer available.

Mr Bore has access to all the examination documents and recorded hearings. He is not accepting any further representations at present.

An update on the next steps in the process will be posted here and sent to all Regulation 19 Representors as soon as possible.


24 March 2022

The previous update in December gave an estimated timeframe for the Inspector’s ‘report of the first quarter of this year.

The Report is now not likely to be available by the end of March as the Inspector is continuing to consider the responses to the main modification consultation, and her findings will be published in due course.


21 December 2021

The Inspectors’ Final Report is expected to be available during the first quarter of 2022.


2 November 2021

The Inspectors have received copies of all the representations submitted in response to the consultation on the proposed Main Modifications to the Local Plan. Once they have considered these they will be able to give an update on the next steps in the examination. However, this is not likely to be for a few weeks due to the large number of representations received.


29 October 2021

The representations received in response to the consultation on the proposed Main Modifications on the submission version of the Epping Forest Local Plan which took place between 15 July and 23 September are now available and can be viewed via the Main Modifications Responses page.


13 October 2021

Next stage following closure of main modifications consultation

The Main Modifications Consultation on the emerging Epping Forest District Local Plan closed on 23 September 2021.

The appointed Local Plan Inspectors, as part of the continuing Examination process, will consider all representations made on the proposed Main Modifications and the evidence presented throughout the duration of the Examination. For the avoidance of doubt, the Council will provide complete and full copies of all duly made representations on the Main Modifications to the Inspectors. This will include all supporting documents provided by representors.

Representations will have been redacted to remove any sensitive information (e.g. personal information, offensive and discriminative comments towards groups or individuals).

The Council will provide, in addition, for the Inspectors’ reference:

  • A document with responses ordered by Main Modification, by supporting document and by ‘other’ in cases where no Main Modification or supporting document is specified. For the purposes of this document, the Council has agreed with the Inspectors that the Council will summarise responses to questions 6 and 7 where the response exceeds 300 words. Question 6 asks why do you consider the Main Modification and/or supporting document is not legally compliant or is unsound and Question 7 asks the representor to set out what change(s) are considered necessary to make the Main Modification and/or supporting document legally compliant or sound. As agreed with the Inspectors, within any representations to a Main Modification/ supporting document/ ‘other’ where a response to question 6 or 7 exceeds 300 words it will be summarised to no more than 300 words. Responses that are summarised for the purpose of this document will be clearly stated as such with ‘Council Officer has summarised’ at the beginning. The document will also make clear how the reader can access the full representations.
  • An Excel document ordered by Representor to see what Main Modifications/ supporting documents/ ‘other’ each representor has commented upon.
  • An Excel document ordered by Main Modification/ supporting document/ ‘other’ to see the totality of responses for example, to a particular Main Modification.

The above additional documents are to be provided to the Inspectors alongside all full representations to assist in the process of reviewing all representations made. The Inspector will consider all representations in full.

The full representations, as well as the additional 3 documents outlined above, will be available on the Local Plan Examination Website and therefore accessible to all.

The Council has shared this note with Inspector Phillips and she has agreed to its contents.


23 September 2021

The main modifications consultation period closed at 5pm on Thursday 23 September 2021.


27 August 2021

Inspector Phillips will be going on maternity leave at the beginning of November, and although she anticipates she will have completed her Report on the Examination before this date, Inspector Matthew Birkinshaw BA(Hons) Msc MRTPI has been appointed to work with her and will take over the Examination at the beginning of November should this be necessary.


15 July 2021

The Local Plan Main Modifications public consultation has started and runs for an extended period of 10 weeks to 23 September.


8 June 2021

The Inspector has published an update on the progress to the main modifications consultation and this can be viewed at ED119 in the examination documents.


9 February 2021

The Inspector has published an Update note on the progress to the main modifications consultation which can be viewed in the Examination documents at ED118.


19 November 2020

The responses to the Inspector’s recent consultation can now be viewed on the Consultation on the 2018 based Household Projections page.


11 November 2020

The EFDC Consolidated and Updated Viability Evidence and the EFDC Updated Infrastructure Delivery Schedule Part B are now available in the Examination documents at ED116 and ED117 respectively.


2 October 2020

The Inspector has published an update note on the Examination which can be viewed in the Examination documents at ED115.


23 September 2020

The Council’s response to the Inspector concerning the 2018 based household projections and the accompanying report from ORS are available in the Examination Documents at ED114 and ED114A.


16 July 2020

The Inspector has written to the Council concerning the ONS 2018 based Household Projections. Her letter can be viewed in the Examination documents at ED111.


11 May 2020

The Council have submitted a Position Statement on the Epping Forest Special Area of Conservation (SAC). This can be viewed in the Examination documents at ED108.


27 April 2020

The Council have written to the Inspector giving an update on the progress of the Actions set out in her Advice after the Hearings. This can be viewed in the Examination documents at ED106 and the Inspector’s reply at ED107.


27 March 2020

As set out in the Council’s note of 21 January, the Methodology Review for the HRA for the Local Plan has been submitted and can be viewed in the Examination Documents at ED105.


27 January 2020

The Council have written to the Inspector with an update and details of the timings of the work leading up to Main Modifications. Both the letter and the Council’s timeline can be viewed in the Examination documents at ED104 and ED104A.


2 January 2020

The actions arising out of the Hearing Sessions are now complete and can all be viewed on the Hearing Sessions Actions page.


28 November 2019

The Inspector has issued a formal response to the Council’s reply (ED100) to her advice after the Hearings (ED98). The Inspector’s response can be viewed in the examination documents reference ED102.


20 October 2019

The Council have submitted a position statement on the Epping Forest Special Area of Conservation and this can be viewed in the examination documents at ED101 EFDC Epping Forest Special Area of Conservation Position Statement (EFDC October 2019) (pdf 47KB).


6 August 2019

Following the recent hearing sessions of the Examination of the Epping Forest Local Plan, the Inspector has now issued her Interim Findings and these can be viewed in the examination documents at ED98.


11 July 2019

At the close of the hearing sessions, the Inspector announced that she was intending to write to the Council and that she hopes to be able to do this by the 12 July. It is now not possible for the letter to be with the Council by this date, but the delay is likely to be relatively short.


13 June 2019

The Inspector’s closing remarks at the end of the hearing sessions on 11 June 2019 are available at ED77 in the examination document.

An updated list of Actions Arising out of the Hearing Sessions is now available and can be viewed on the Actions Arising out of the Hearing Sessions page.


22 May 2019

Natural England have submitted a paper on the assessment of likely effects of NOx and ammonia and this can be viewed in the examination documents at ED62.


8 May 2019

The Council have submitted further documents in response to the Actions Arising out of the Hearing Sessions, these can be accessed on the Hearing Sessions Actions page.


8 May 2019

The agenda for the hearing session to be held on 21 May (Matter 1 Issue 5 HRA and Matter 16 Policies DM2 and DM22) is now available and can be viewed on the Hearing Sessions page.


7 May 2019

The list of actions for the Council arising out of the Hearing Sessions, and the documents submitted in response, can be viewed under the new tab on the landing page Hearing Session Actions.

The List of Actions is a rolling document and will be updated as new actions are requested during the hearing sessions, and documents in response to the actions are submitted.


26 April 2019

The hearing statements for the hearing sessions to be held w/c 13 May 2019, w/c 20 May 2019 and w/c 11 June 2019 are now available and can be accessed on the Hearing Sessions page.

An updated Participants’ List V.9 29.4.19 is also available on the Hearing Sessions page.


26 April 2019

Statements of Common Ground have recently been submitted to the examination and can be viewed in the Examination Documents reference numbers ED37-ED41.


23 April 2019

The following documents have been uploaded to the Examination documents:


19 March 2019

The Agendas covering Matter 16 which is for discussion at the hearing sessions on Tuesday 26 and Wednesday 27 March can be viewed by clicking the link below:


15 March 2019

The Agendas for Matter 5, 6 and 8 which are being discussed at the hearing sessions starting on Tuesday 19 March 2019 can be viewed by clicking on the links below:


14 March 2019

The Inspector has issued her Agenda for Matter 5 which will be discussed at the hearing session on Tuesday 19 March 2019.

Click here to view the EFDC Week 3 Matter 5 Agenda V1 (pdf 82KB).


7 March 2019

As the hearing session for Matter 1, Issue 5 on Habitats Regulations Assessment(HRA) has been postponed until 21 May 2019, the Inspector has decided to also postpone discussion of Development Management Policies DM2 (Epping Forest SAC and Lee Valley SPA) and DM22 (Air Quality) until that date so that the over-lapping matters can be considered at the same session.

View details of the alteration to the Programme on the Provisional Programme and Participants List V.7 (Updated 7.3.19).


28 February 2019

In response to the Inspector’s questions during the first week of the hearing sessions, the council have submitted 5 documents and these can be viewed in the examination documents at ED13, ED14, ED15, ED16 and ED18.


27 February 2019

Watch the hearing sessions:


26 February 2019

The hearing statements submitted in response to the Inspector’s Matters, Issues and Questions for Matters 5, 6, 8 and 16 are now available.

Click here to view the Hearing Statements for weeks 3 and 4.


11 February 2019

Watch the hearing sessions live.

Subscribe to watch the meetings. You will receive 4 emails – 24 hours before, 1 hour before, when it goes live and when it is archived. You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking on a link in the emails.


7 February 2019

The following documents are available on the examination documents page:

ED9 – Harlow & Gilston Garden Town Update
ED10 – Draft SoCG between EFDC and Essex County Council
ED10A – Appendix 1 resolved objections
ED10B – Appendix 2 outstanding objections
ED11 – Note on the postponement of the Habitats Regulation Assessment hearing session


5 February 2019

An updated Habitats Regulation Assessment (January 2019) has been submitted and will be examined at an additional hearing session on 21 May 2019. The Updated Provisional Programme and Participants List for the hearing sessions can be viewed under the hearing sessions tab.

Click here to view the Hearing Sessions.


31 January 2019

The hearing statements submitted in response to the Inspector’s Matters, Issues and Questions for Matters 1, 2, 3, 4, and 7 are now available.

Click here to view the Hearing Statements for weeks 1 and 2.


21 January 2019

The Provisional Programme showing the Participants for each Hearing Session is now available, click here to view the Hearing Sessions.


29 November 2018

The dates for the hearing sessions are now available and details of these and the documents relating to the hearing sessions can be viewed under the Hearing Sessions page.


17 October 2018

Details on possible timings of the hearing sessions can be viewed on the Hearing Sessions page.


15 October 2018

An Infrastructure Delivery Topic Paper has been submitted by the Council and this can be viewed in the examination documents ref ED2 or in the evidence base ref EB1101C.