More than 4,800 people sent around 21,000 comments on the plan's final draft. Councillors vote on 14 December on sending it to a Planning Inspector.

More than 4,800 people sent comments on the final draft of the South Warwickshire Local Plan. Between them they made around 21,000 separate representations.

The figures come from a joint release by Stratford-on-Avon and Warwick district councils, published on Wednesday 11 November. The plan sets Stratford-on-Avon district a minimum of 27,800 new homes by 2050.

What happens next

The two councils have set out the next steps:

  • Thursday 10 December 2026: the South Warwickshire Local Plan Joint Committee considers a report seeking approval to submit the plan.
  • Monday 14 December 2026: both councils’ Full Council meetings consider it.
  • Early 2027: the plan is submitted for examination by an independent Planning Inspector.

That is later than first planned. When the consultation opened in July, the councils were working to a submission deadline of 31 December 2026. The release says they will now use the government’s extension to that deadline.

What happens to the comments

The councils say their role now is mainly to collate the representations and pass them all to the inspector. The inspector will run the Examination in Public.

Officers will not answer every comment. The release says they “will seek to address the key themes and concerns raised through the consultation”. They will also consider whether to put small “non-material” changes to the inspector. The councils say this “will not be an opportunity to make major alterations” to the plan.

Councillor George Cowcher, Stratford-on-Avon’s portfolio holder for planning, and Councillor Ian Davison, leader of Warwick District Council, issued a joint statement.

“We would like to thank everyone who took the time to engage with the consultation and submit their views,” they said. “The level of response demonstrates the strong interest people have in the future of South Warwickshire.”

How it compares

This was the Regulation 19 stage, the last formal consultation before examination. It ran from 21 July to 8 September 2026.

The previous round, the Preferred Options consultation in early 2025, drew more than 22,000 responses, the council said in July. The two counts may not be measured the same way, so they are not a like-for-like comparison. The release does not break the 21,000 down by site, by town or by district.

What it means for you

If you sent a representation, you do not need to do anything now. It goes to the inspector as it stands.

The 14 December Full Council meeting is public. The papers are normally published about a week beforehand on the district council’s committee site.

The examination is where the plan is tested. The inspector decides whether it is legally compliant and sound, and can hold hearings on the most disputed sites. In the town, the draft allocates 4,191 homes across three sites, the largest of them 2,727 homes south-east of Stratford-upon-Avon.

Nothing in the plan is final until the inspector reports and the councils adopt it.