The County Council is responsible for the preparation of planning policy for minerals and waste development in Worcestershire.

The Local Development Scheme (LDS) is a public statement setting out the programme for the production of minerals and waste development plan documents by the County Council.

All development plan documents prepared by the Council must be prepared in accordance with this timetable.

The Local Development Scheme (2025) (PDF) (LDS) came into effect on 12 February 2025, setting out Worcestershire County Council’s priorities for producing planning policy and evidence over the period February 2025 to December 2027. The 2025 LDS sets out progress made since the last iteration of the LDS, and includes a timetable for the review of the Waste Core Strategy (Waste Local Plan) and a programme setting out how monitoring and evidence gathering will be reported through the Local Aggregate Assessment, Local Industrial Minerals Assessment, and Waste Needs Assessment.

The LDS replaces the previous version dated July 2022 and reflects significant changes to the plan-making system resulting from the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023. As a result of these changes, and to focus the Council's resources on ensuring updated Waste Planning Policy is in place as soon as possible, the Mineral Site Allocations Development Plan Document (DPD) identified for production in the previous LDS is no longer being prepared. The LDS sets out in detail the reasons for this change of focus.

There are still significant uncertainties about the implementation of the new plan-making system under the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023. The timetable set out in the LDS reflects the direction of travel indicated by Government consultations, but will be subject to change as the Government’s timescales for implementation become clearer and the exact requirements of the new plan-making system are published.