8.2 Paragraph 9.46 of the Proposed Submission South Somerset Local Plan 2006 – 2028 highlights that as the Gypsy and Traveller Accommodation Assessment (2011) only identifies need up until 2020 it will have to be updated to establish the level of need beyond that date. The Inspector’s original Examination question asked why pitch/plot targets were not in the emerging Policy and this point was explained on the basis that the figure was not available and that an update to get the figure to the end of the plan period had been commissioned. The 2013 Update has now been completed and it is necessary to amend the emerging Local Plan to reflect this specific new evidence. Given that this will involve the inclusion of pitch and plot targets in an amended Policy HG7 it is considered that this constitutes a Proposed Main Modification to the Plan.

8.3 Planning policy for traveller sites (CLG, 2013) expects local planning authorities (LPAs) to set pitch targets for Gypsies and Travellers and plot targets for Travelling Showpeople. LPAs are expected to identify and update annually, a supply of specific deliverable sites to provide 5 years’ worth of sites against those locally set targets.

8.4 The Council has sought to update its evidence base to identify the need up until the end of the plan period so that it is able to identify pitch and plot targets in Policy HG7.

8.5 Policy HG7: Gypsies, Travellers and Travelling Showpeople and its supporting text should be amended to reflect the findings of the GTAA Update (2013).

8.6 The Proposed Main Modification is presented in the table below (any new text is underlined and deleted text is shown as crossed through).