Communities will have another chance to voice their opinion on the threat to green belt land after a council was inundated with comments.

Three Rivers District Council has confirmed it has decided to repeat the consultation it carried out with its residents last year about its local plan.

The plan is a document that local authorities are legally obliged to create. It helps determine the future pattern of development, such as identifying sites which can help meet Three Government housing targets - Three Rivers' is around 10,000 over the next 15 years.

Last year, the council released a list of sites across that officers deemed could be built on to meet the targets. Many of the sites are within the protected green belt and prompted protests in the district and thousands of people to respond in a consultation.

The council says it received 20,000 individual comments which officers have been sifting through.

What's the latest situation?

The consultation held last summer in Three Rivers was known in the planning world as a 'Regulation 18', which provides residents and stakeholders the chance to comment on the contents of the draft local plan.

The council can use this feedback to make any alterations to its draft local plan before sending it out again for public viewing.

This is known as the Regulation 19 stage, and although it provides another opportunity for consultation, the consensus is a council will submit the draft plan as it is to the Secretary of State for examination.

Three Rivers District Council was intending to carry out the Regulation 19 stage this year; however, it has decided, in light of the 20,000 comments, to repeat the Regulation 18 consultation.

It has been scheduled to take place in November.

Taking into account feedback received last year, when the draft plan goes out to consultation in November, there may be differences in relations to sites and policies.

The consultation could also take into account any new national policies on housebuilding on the green belt that may arise in between, with Prime Minister Boris Johnson stating in 2021 that homes should not be build on green fields.

Because the council has decided to undergo a second Regulation 18 consultation, any draft local plan is now not likely to be submitted until late 2024, meaning the council will miss a deadline of 2023 that councils are thought to have been set to adopt a new local plan.