Stop Treating the Local-Plan Timetable as a PDF: Build a Promotion Calendar From It

A local-plan timetable is no longer just an occasional programme buried in a committee pack. Under the new system, authorities must publish structured timetable data and keep it current.

For land teams, that makes the timetable more useful — but only if it becomes a working promotion calendar rather than another saved file.

What authorities must publish

The plan-timetable guidance says local planning authorities and minerals and waste planning authorities must create, publish and keep a timetable up to date.

The timetable covers local plans, minerals and waste plans and supplementary plans. It must describe the matters and geography covered, any supplementary plans and the key milestone dates.

Authorities must publish two separate structured files: a plan dataset and a plan-timetable dataset. The guidance permits standard formats including CSV, GeoJSON, GML and GeoPackage, alongside a user-friendly version.

This does not guarantee that every council website will be easy to use. It does create a more consistent source that a land team can monitor.

The timetable is an authority record, not a site task list

The first design decision is to store the timetable once for the authority and link sites to it.

If six promoted sites sit in the same plan area, do not paste the same consultation dates into six opportunity notes. They will drift apart when the timetable changes.

Keep one authority-level record with:

• plan name and reference;

• regime: legacy or new;

• source URL;

• date checked;

• current timetable version;

• next milestone;

• change since the prior version; and

• affected sites.

Then create site-specific actions only where the milestone has a site consequence.

Convert milestones into decisions

A date becomes useful when it changes a decision.

The 30-month process overview provides the sequence. Your calendar should add the internal lead time needed to respond properly.

Use three dates, not one

For each relevant milestone, record:

1. The authority date — the official published event date.

2. The internal decision date — when the team decides its response.

3. The evidence cut-off — the latest sensible date for commissioning or updating material.

This avoids the familiar Friday-afternoon discovery that a consultation closes on Monday. It also stops a technical report being commissioned after the decision it was meant to influence.

Track changes to the timetable itself

The guidance requires authorities to keep timetables up to date and recommends a schedule of amendments. A changed date is therefore a planning signal, not administrative noise.

When a timetable changes, record:

• previous date;

• new date;

• date the change was published;

• stated reason, if any;

• sites affected; and

• whether the internal plan still works.

Do not assume a delay is positive because it creates more time. It may also mean the evidence base, spatial strategy or political context is changing.

A weekly review that takes 20 minutes

For each priority authority:

1. Check the published timetable source.

2. Compare it with the last saved version.

3. Record additions, removals and date changes.

4. Identify affected promoted sites.

5. Update only the actions that changed.

6. Escalate decisions, not documents.

The output should be a short exception list: what changed, why it matters and who acts next.

Keep the evidence trail

Store the source URL and the date checked beside each timetable version. If a council silently replaces a file, the team must still be able to explain which version informed an earlier decision.

This is especially important during 2026, when legacy and new plan-making systems are operating in parallel. Before using any milestone label, confirm which regime applies. Our guide to the legacy and new local-plan systems provides that test.

A timetable becomes valuable when it tells the land team what to do next. Until then, it is only another planning document in a folder.