The plan for how Rutland will develop over the next two decades will be examined by a planning inspector next week. 

Over the course of a six-day hearing, inspector Katie Price will take representations from members of the public, developers, Rutland County Council and interested parties about the submitted Local Plan and hear arguments about what elements if any need to be changed. 

The plan sets out where homes will be built, where business sites will be situated and how much public infrastructure, such as doctors' surgeries, are needed between now and 2041. 

Matters the inspector has indicated will be discussed include the St George's Barracks site and the large site at Woolfox, which could see as many as 4,000 homes built.  

The hearing will start on Wednesday (September 9) at the council's headquarters in Oakham and continue throughout that week and three days of the following week. 

But as with all things Local Plan in Rutland, the matter is likely not going to be straight forward. Rutland County Council had to withdraw its plan in the final stages back in 2021 after a debacle which saw it refuse to accept an almost £30m government grant to support building a new garden community at St George's Barracks. 

It then started the current one, which has been consulted on and was submitted to the secretary of state in February, but due to new planning changes being introduced by the Labour government, the authority's plan will be out of date before any adoption, and so a new one has been started. 

Labour has a target to build an extra 1.5 million homes across the country and Rutland has had its new homes target more than doubled from 123 to 266 per year. 

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In order to have enough building sites available the council put out a call for landowners to suggest sites in May.  

After hearing evidence from the interested parties, the inspector will issue her report. The authority can then decide whether it wants to formally adopt the plan, which usually involves a vote by the full council. 

More information about the examination is available on the council's website.