Statement of Community Involvement (SCI)

The Statement of Community Involvement (SCI) is a document that we must produce and keep up to date to ensure effective community involvement at all stages in the planning process. It sets out how anyone who lives, works, plays or carries out business in the Buckinghamshire Council area can be involved in local planning decisions and the preparation of planning documents.

The SCI explains when, how, and for what reasons you will be able to participate in planning issues. These include plan making, neighbourhood plans, planning applications, and planning enforcement.

On 1 April 2020, Buckinghamshire Council was created as a unitary local authority. It was formed from the former Aylesbury Vale, Chiltern, South Bucks and Wycombe district councils and Buckinghamshire County Council. The former councils each had their own SCI which were replaced by the first Buckinghamshire Council SCI in December 2021. This version of the SCI is a revised and updated version of that initial document.

We recognise that planning affects people’s daily lives, as the decisions we make shape the place we live and work in. As a result, we want to involve communities as early in the process as possible.

There are many benefits of involving communities in planning matters, these include:

• a greater focus on local needs and priorities;
• planning decisions are informed by local knowledge;
• increased community understanding of how planning policies are developed and how they are linked to other council documents;
• creates a sense of ownership of key policy documents;
• removes barriers (physical, language or social) and gives communities access to information and opportunities to voice their needs and opinions; and
• creates accountability by generating a wider interest in monitoring outcomes.

As our residents and business community, we want you to feel empowered to get involved with planning should you wish.

We aim to make consultation and involvement in planning transparent, accessible, collaborative, inclusive and consistent. We will do this through the methods set out in this SCI.

In the sections that follow we set out what the law says we must do and a range of other options that we will most likely choose to do to enhance our engagement with you. For these other options, we use the word ‘may’ do. We may well do a lot, or all, of the ‘mays’ but there will be occasions when it may not be practicable or appropriate to do all of them.