A new timetable for producing the next version of the Local Development Plan (LDP) for Powys reveals it could be adopted up to 18 months later than expected.

The LDP is a document that directs where housing and industrial developments can take place in Powys.

The current LDP is due to expire at the end of March 2026.

Work on the new LDP started in March 2022 and it is expected to cover the period up to 2037.

At a meeting of Powys County Council’s Liberal Democrat/Labour Cabinet on Tuesday, July 9 senior councillors received a “revised” LDP delivery agreement.

Planning portfolio holder, Liberal Democrat Cllr Jake Berriman explained that the timetable “slippage” had been caused in part by the need to also produce a “Strategic Development Plan” for the whole of Mid Wales.

Cllr Berriman said: “This means the delivery agreement that we now have requires adjustment.

“Our existing plan has an end date of 2026 and in the delivery agreement we’re proposing we will not be able to produce an adopted plan before September 2027.

The current LDP is expected to still be a “material consideration” during the bridging period between plans.

Cllr Berriman explained that planning officers had already done a considerable amount of work with communities and consultants to “gather together” as much information as they can in what is an “evidence-based excercise.”

Cllr Berriman said: “Taken together the preferred strategy does represent a blueprint for a positive can-do can-deliver approach to planning sustainable communities across Powys.”

He hoped that councillors could go back to their communities and work with them to “test and challenge” the principles and proposals in the preferred strategy.

Cabinet agreed the report and recommended that the document is approved by all councillors at a full council meeting on Thursday, July 11.

If this is ratified by council the delivery agreement will be sent to the Welsh Government for sign off.

After sign off, the work will start this autumn on the preferred strategy which is also known as the deposit plan.

This process would include a public consultation.

Work in the deposit plan is expected to continue until July 2025 when it will then be the subject of further public consultation as it trasitions to become the replacement LDP.

By August 2026, the council should be preparing the plan for final submission to the Welsh Government.

This will lead on to an 11-month process of public examination of the replacement LDP which would include further consultation on any changes.

The council believe that a planning inspector report on the new LDP could be completed by August 2027.

This would allow the new LDP to be adopted eight weeks later.