As part of a consultation process to help make the city region a more prosperous, healthier and greener place to live, work, invest in, and visit, the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority has invited PLACED, a local organisation, to deliver a series of pop-up events across the city region.

These events will capture local people’s views, as part of the “Our Places” consultation, which will influence the Combined Authority’s first Spatial Development Strategy (SDS), setting out a strategic framework for the development and use of land looking over the next 15 years.

The pre-Christmas events will take place in Huyton, Liscard and Widnes, and will also feature free Christmas card making craft activities.

The events will take place at the following times and venues:

Anyone wanting to have their say on planning issues and the development of the SDS can also visit http://lcrlistens.co.uk/ourplaces  where they can comment on a range of different policy themes.

Speaking about the consultation, Steve Rotheram said:

“Devolution gives us the opportunity to take decisions closer to home to shape how our city region looks in the future.

“I launched this consultation so that our Spatial Development Strategy, which will inform how our city region is planned and developed over the next 15 years, reflects the priorities of the people who live and work here.

“This latest consultation exercise is part of our LCR Listens approach, which has seen us consult with more than 7000 people since the summer as we develop our Local Industrial Strategy.

“We are committed to ensuring that we understand the 1.6 million people we work for, so that their priorities inform everything we do.”

The SDS is a statutory planning document. This means that when it is published, it will form part of the ‘development plan’ for the city region’s six local authorities alongside their own Local Plans and Neighbourhood Plans. The policies that make up the SDS, when finalised, will be considered when determining planning applications across the city region.

After receiving all responses, the Combined Authority will review them and, along with any evidence needed, take them into account as it drafts the policies.

A draft of the SDS will then be presented to the Combined Authority followed by a 12-week consultation when people will be able to comment again on specific policies.