Rutland County Council is to take more time before it devises its policies concerning its engagement with local communities on planning matters.

The moves comes as the deadline passed yesterday (Friday July 17) for feedback on changes to its Statement of Community Involvement.

Rutland's Statement of Community Involvement (SCI) sets out how the County Council will undertakes public consultation when carrying out its planning duties.

There is no legal requirement for Planning Authorities to consult on SCIs. However, Rutland County Council made a commitment to publish its draft SCI and invite feedback from local communities over a four-week period, starting on June 19.

All of the feedback gathered as part of the consultation will now be reviewed. A revised draft of the SCI will then be discussed by the Council's Growth, Infrastructure and Resources (GIR) Scrutiny Committee on Thursday August 13, followed by Cabinet on Tuesday August 18.

The date for Rutland's next GIR Scrutiny meeting had previously been set as July 29. This has been adjusted to allow Planning Officers time to consider further changes to national planning law, announced by the government on 16 July.

Councillor Gordon Brown, Cabinet Member for Planning, said: "We've had a strong response to our consultation on Rutland's draft SCI. We're grateful to everyone who took the time to give us their feedback and will shortly begin the job of reviewing all the comments that have been received. A further draft SCI will follow, next month, before the document is finalised and put into practice."

For more information about Rutland's Statement of Community Involvement, go to: www.rutland.gov.uk/sci