Planning and regeneration

Local Development Scheme (LDS)

The Local Development Scheme (LDS)

All councils are required to produce, publish and keep up to date a Local Development Scheme (LDS). This sets out the plans and planning documents that a council intends to prepare and use for planning and development decisions. It provides the plan-making programme and timetables for producing the different plans and planning documents and is the council's 'management plan' for assembling and maintaining its Local Development Framework (LDF).

A LDS should set out, at the least, a three-year programme for preparing plans. Many also provide lists of other plans and planning documents that could be prepared when time and resources permit.

The LDS is not a plan in itself to go into the LDF.

A council's performance as a plan-making authority is likely to be judged against how well it keeps to the programme and timetables set out in its LDS. This should be kept up to date, which in practice means it will probably be rolled forward at least annually although, technically, updating can occur any time it is necessary.

The council has adopted a revised Local Development Scheme setting out the programme and timetable officers are seeking to progress. This Scheme has the approval of the Secretary of State and replaces the Local Development Scheme adopted in 2006.