The Development Plans Group has responsibility for the production of the Leicestershire, Leicester and Rutland Structure Plan in co-operation with Leicestershire County Council and Rutland County Council. The Plan provides county-wide strategic policies.

The draft Plan for 1996-2016 was placed on deposit on 22 May 2000. 283 responses containing 2369 individual representations were made.

As a result of consideration of these representations, the three councils proposed pre Examination-In-Public changes to the Plan. These were advertised between 14 March and 25 April 2001. An Examination-in-Public was held between 26 June and 5 July 2001.

The Panel submitted its report to the three Councils on 10 September 2001. The three councils published a statement of decisions on each of the recommendations in the report of the Panel, with reasons for each decision. Proposed Modifications to the Deposit Draft Structure Plan were placed on deposit from 7 June until 19 July 2002.

The three councils considered all the objections made, and in July 2003 they published their intention to adopt the Plan without further modifications. In August, the Secretary of State issued a Direction not to adopt the Plan.

Further proposed modifications were published in September 2004. The Secretary of State withdrew the Direction in December 2004 and confirmed that the three councils could proceed towards adoption of the plan. The Structure Plan was adopted on 7 March 2005.

Full details of the Structure Plan are available at Leicestershire County Council's website.