Oldham Local Plan to 2039 Examination
The Council submitted their Local Plan to the Planning Inspectorate on 14 August 2026.
This page should be viewed alongside the Submission web page Oldham Local Plan Submission | Oldham Local Plan Submission | Oldham Council from which the original submission library may be accessed. The submission library contains a full set of representations submitted at the Local Plan Publication Plan stage.
Further library items will be added to this Examination page as the Examination progresses and representors and other interested parties are encouraged to view it on a regular basis for new items and latest developments.
Latest News
20 October 2026 The Inspectors' Matters Issues and Questions which will form the framework for the Examination hearings are now available, along with a Guidance Note and Hearings Programme. Library items EL1.004a-c relate and contain important information for those wishing further involvement in this process. The hearings are expected to progress over two weeks commencing Tuesday 8 December.
16 October 2026 The Council's responses to the Inspectors' Initial Questions have now been added to this webpage as items EL2.001a-c in the library section below. The Inspectors are now progressing production of Matters Issues and Questions (MIQs) ahead of hearing dates which presently are anticipated on dates yet to be finalised but are expected to be during the two weeks commencing Tuesday 8 December. Further details regarding MIQs and hearing dates will be available in the near future.
7 September 2026 The Inspectors have asked the Council to respond by 2 October to a series of Initial Questions and these may be viewed in the Examination library at the foot of this webpage. The Council's responses will be added to the library in due course.
The Inspectors
Anne Jordan BA Hons MRTPI and Ben Johnson BA Hons DipTP MRTPI have been appointed to undertake an independent examination into the soundness of the Plan and to subsequently issue a report with their conclusions.
The Programme Officer
All correspondence to or from the Inspectors will be via an independent Programme Officer and Tony Blackburn will fulfill this role. Items should be sent to him, preferably by email:
or alternatively by post to him at the following address:
Additionally he may be contacted by telephone on 07949 020 540.
The Hearings
The Inspectors will hold a series of hearings as part of the Examination process and these are currently scheduled to take place over two weeks commencing Tuesday 8 December 2026 at The Hive, Upper Mall, The Spindles, Oldham, OL1 1HD. Further details can be found in library items EL1.004a-c below. The Programme Officer will send an updated programme to intended participants in due course, in addition to which all interested parties are encouraged to view this webpage periodically for latest news.
Privacy notices
Oldham's privacy notice tells you what to expect when we collect personal information and your rights in relation to that information.
The Planning Inspectorate provides advice about how the Planning Inspectorate will process any personal information and can be accessed at Customer Privacy Notice – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). It is very important that you read and consider these notices carefully because they explain how your personal information will be used and stored.
Details of the Council's core data protection and commitments are set out in the Council's primary privacy notice and service privacy notice for Strategic Planning and Information. Both are available on the Council's data protection web pages.
Procedure guide for Local Plan examinations
The Planning Inspectorate has also prepared a Procedure Guide for Local Plan Examinations that provides useful guidance on the procedural aspects of examining a local plan.
There is also a document Local plans: taking part in examinations - GOV.UK and is particularly aimed at those taking part in Examinations for the first time.
Further Examination library items
These will be added here as the Examination progresses.
Inspectors and Programme Officer items
- EL1.001a Inspectors' Initial Questions
- EL1.001b Local Plan Housing Land Supply Template
- EL1.001c Local Plans: Summary of Overall Housing Land Supply
- EL1.002 Email from Programme Officer to Representors
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EL1.003 National Planning Policy Framework (July 2021) (Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. National Planning Policy Framework © Crown copyright)