At least five plans, one summer, and windows that ignore the page count
At least five English local plan consultations are open right now (our sweep is not exhaustive; tell us about others). Four opened within thirteen days of each other, between 21 July and 3 August 2026, because every council still working under the 2012 Regulations must submit its plan by 31 December 2026. All four run across the school summer holidays. The two largest documents got the two shortest windows. Every number on this page is quoted from a council’s own published page or measured from its published PDF.
Open right now
| Council | Stage | Days | Document |
|---|---|---|---|
| Buckinghamshire | Regulation 19 | 46 | 450 pages |
| South Warwickshire (Stratford-on-Avon and Warwick) | Regulation 19 | 50 | 543 pages |
| Stoke-on-Trent | Regulation 19 | 42 (minimum) | not measured |
| Sevenoaks | Regulation 19 | 57 | not measured |
| Three Rivers | Regulation 19 | 57 | 408 pages |
| Peterborough | Minerals and waste scoping (2026 Regulations) | 71 | not measured |
South Warwickshire, a joint plan for two districts running to 2050, is the largest document of the five and has 50 days. Buckinghamshire is the second largest and has 46. Three Rivers, whose plan is 135 pages shorter than Buckinghamshire’s, has 57. And the Peterborough row is the contrast worth sitting with: a scoping consultation, asking what a minerals and waste plan ought to contain, has 71 days. A finished 543 page plan that fixes development policy to 2050 has 50.
Pages against days: there is no relationship
Councils go longer when they choose to
Nothing in the regulations prevents a longer window. Uttlesford ran 68 days. Test Valley and Tunbridge Wells each chose ten weeks. Harborough announced eight weeks rather than the six week minimum precisely so residents had time to read the draft. Newham extended its Regulation 19 by two weeks after residents asked for time outside the school summer holidays: a national defect being patched locally, by hand, case by case. The floor operates as a default, not a considered judgement, and the councils that break from it prove the point.
The reform that did not fix it
The 2012 Regulations were revoked on 25 March 2026 and replaced by the 2026 Regulations (S.I. 2026/186). The new rules set flat minimums of six weeks for the plan content and evidence consultation and eight weeks for the proposed local plan consultation. Neither varies with the length, complexity or timing of what is consulted on. A 45 page addendum and a 543 page two-district plan earn exactly the same floor.
What this evidence shows
- Across nineteen recent consultations the window sits between 43 and 71 days regardless of document size.
- The 2026 summer bunching is Government made: one submission deadline pushed at least five councils into consulting simultaneously across the school holidays.
- These consultations are lawful. The argument of this page is that the minimum is broken, not that any council broke the rules.
How these numbers were worked out
Consultation dates are quoted from the councils’ own published pages, each linked above; day counts are inclusive of first and last day. Document sizes marked measured were counted from the councils’ published PDFs with pypdf: page counts are exact, word counts are extraction counts and treated as approximate. Where a council’s portal refuses automated requests the size is shown as not measured, never estimated. Stoke-on-Trent publishes no end date; six weeks from its stated opening is treated as a minimum. Compiled 16 August 2026; consultation pages are edited in place, so check the council’s page for the current position.