Neighbourhood Plan Community Updates
26 February 2016 Update (as given in March 2016 Parish Council Newsletter circulated at the beginning of March) Those of you who have been following the progress of the Neighbourhood Plan for Wisborough Green will know that the culmination of the process is a local referendum through which the Plan is agreed upon, or not, by our residents. In our case this is likely to take place in May or June this year. The Neighbourhood Plan has been 3 years in the making and has recently been through a validation process whereby a Planning Examiner reviewed our Plan to see if it fulfils the ‘basic conditions’ of national planning policy. The Examiner can make one of three recommendations: • The Plan goes forward to referendum without amendment. The recommendation for our Plan is that it goes forward to referendum with amendments most of which relate either to changes that have occurred to planning policy since we started the neighbourhood planning process or where the policies we want to see are now covered by the recently published Chichester District Local Plan. So we now proceed to referendum. The Parish Council is very aware of the local concerns raised by the recent application for housing development on the land behind the Cricketers, known as Winterfold. This site is in the Neighbourhood Plan but with a timescale for development after 2025. It is unfortunate that this phasing was one of the policies that the Planning Examiner said was inconsistent with national planning policy. We have recently met with Planning Officers at Chichester District Council to try and challenge the Examiner’s view on the phasing issue, but to no avail. Any reference to phasing will now have to be removed from the Neighbourhood Plan. Conversely the Examiner supported and strengthened the Greenspace policy associated with the Winterfold site. This will ensure that the Parish will gain a significant area of Greenspace for the benefit of the community. Neighbourhood Plans are now a key component of Planning Policy, setting out as they do local policies to inform the future development of the community. The local planning department are required to take account of Neighbourhood Plans when determining both future policy and individual planning applications. Likewise the Parish Council will use the Plan to guide its response to future planning applications. Without a Neighbourhood Plan the decision making reverts solely to Chichester District Council, reducing local influence considerably and making the village vulnerable to unwanted development. The Neighbourhood Plan referendum is important. It’s important that we get a good turnout and it’s important that we use it to ensure that we influence the future of Wisborough Green and not leave it to other people. Details of the referendum date will be sent to you by CDC and also advertised in the village. Update 23rd November 2015 Update – November 2015 (as reported in Parish Council newsletter to all households) Update – July 2015 (as reported in Parish Council newsletter to all households) Update – 30th April 2015 Thank you to all those who took the time to read and comment on the Pre-Submission Neighbourhood Plan. 134 residents responded to the consultation with over 100 dropping into the consultation information sessions in the Village Hall in January. It was reassuring to hear that most people felt the Plan reflected well the needs and views of the village. The Parish Council is now pleased to report that the Neighbourhood Plan has entered the next phase of the process. The Neighbourhood Plan has been submitted to and accepted by Chichester District Council (CDC). The District Council will now publish the Submission Version of the Neighbourhood Plan for Wisborough Green on consultation from Thursday 30th April until 5.00 pm on Thursday 11th June 2015. During this period, representations may be submitted to CDC according to the information on their website and given below. Following consultation on the Pre-Submission Draft Neighbourhood Plan, held from 5th January to 16th January 2015, a number of changes were made to reflect the comments received from both statutory consultees and local residents. The complete consultation process and the changes made to the Plan have been recorded in the Consultation Statement submitted to CDC. A Basic Conditions Statement was also submitted which demonstrates how the Plan is compliant with national and local planning legislation. You can view and comment upon the revised Submission Neighbourhood Plan, as well as view supporting documents, by clicking on this link to the CDC website. From the site you can download a Consultation Response form. Once completed, it should be returned to CDC by email to neighbourhoodplanning@chichester.gov.uk or by post to Neighbourhood Planning Officer, Planning Policy, Chichester District Council, East Pallant House, East Pallant, Chichester PO19 1TY. A printed copy of the Submission Version of the Neighbourhood Plan is available to view at the Wisborough Green Post Office or at the CDC Office at East Pallant House, Chichester. April 2015 Update (included in Parish Council newsletter) Since the last newsletter (last October), we have consulted on the draft Pre-submission Neighbourhood Plan. Thank you to all those who took the time to read and comment on the Plan. 134 residents responded to the consultation with over 100 of you dropping into the consultation information sessions in the Village Hall in January. It was reassuring to hear that most of you felt the Plan reflected well the needs and views of the village. Clearly there are some concerns about particular proposals but overall, the feedback was positive. We also consulted a range of organisations that have a stake in what happens in Wisborough Green, organisations such as the South Downs National Park Authority, Southern Water, Natural England, English Heritage and of course Chichester District Council (CDC). Again these organisations felt that we had created a positive and comprehensive Plan and where they had comment, it was largely about ways we could clarify and strengthen our proposals. Since the end of the consultation the Neighbourhood Plan team has been analysing all the feedback and deciding on what our response should be. In some instances we have changed the Plan and where we have decided that the feedback did not warrant a change, we have set out our reasoning in a document called the Consultation Report. This is one of three documents that needs to accompany the Submission Version of the Plan when it is submitted to CDC. The other two are the ‘Basic Conditions Statement’ setting out how our Pan complies with planning policy and the ‘Proposed Modifications Table’ setting out the changes we have made to the Plan after the consultation. All these documents will be made available when the next consultation starts. We are hoping to submit the Submission Version Neighbourhood Plan in the first half of April. CDC will then run another round of consultation, the Plan will then go for examination by a Planning Inspector and then if all goes well, to Local Referendum towards the end of 2015. Since the last newsletter (last October), we have consulted on the draft Pre-submission Neighbourhood Plan. Thank you to all those who took the time to read and comment on the Plan. 134 residents responded to the consultation with over 100 of you dropping into the consultation information sessions in the Village Hall in January. It was reassuring to hear that most of you felt the Plan reflected well the needs and views of the village. Clearly there are some concerns about particular proposals but overall, the feedback was positive. We also consulted a range of organisations that have a stake in what happens in Wisborough Green, organisations such as the South Downs National Park Authority, Southern Water, Natural England, English Heritage and of course Chichester District Council (CDC). Again these organisations felt that we had created a positive and comprehensive Plan and where they had comment, it was largely about ways we could clarify and strengthen our proposals. Since the end of the consultation the Neighbourhood Plan team has been analysing all the feedback and deciding on what our response should be. In some instances we have changed the Plan and where we have decided that the feedback did not warrant a change, we have set out our reasoning in a document called the Consultation Report. This is one of three documents that needs to accompany the Submission Version of the Plan when it is submitted to CDC. The other two are the ‘Basic Conditions Statement’ setting out how our Pan complies with planning policy and the ‘Proposed Modifications Table’ setting out the changes we have made to the Plan after the consultation. All these documents will be made available when the next consultation starts. We are hoping to submit the Submission Version Neighbourhood Plan in the first half of April. CDC will then run another round of consultation, the Plan will then go for examination by a Planning Inspector and then if all goes well, to Local Referendum towards the end of 2015. The following information was posted to all households on the Electoral Role in December 2014 Pre-Submission Neihbourhood Plan Consultation (Now Closed) THE FUTURE OF WISBOROUGH GREEN The Wisborough Green Neighbourhood Plan is an important document for the future of Wisborough Green over the next fifteen years. It concerns everyone who lives in the village and values its unique heritage and community. This is likely to be the last, locally organised, opportunity for you to influence its content. Due to a Government review of the planning process to address a perceived shortage of housing in the UK, every District Council has an allocation of new properties to be built over the next fifteen years. Chichester District Council has an allocation of 6,973 houses within the emerging Chichester District Local Plan to be built on specific sites across the district, with the remainder from ‘windfall’ sites (sites of 5 houses or less). The Parish of Wisborough Green has an allocated site requirement for a minimum of 60 new houses over this period. As with all parish councils, we have the opportunity to influence how such development impacts on our village by completing a Neighbourhood Development Plan in consultation with the local community. In Wisborough Green this has been a lengthy, thorough and robust process that has incorporated local comment and opinion from several consultations, as well as independent planning guidance. This collaborative approach involving an initial community survey, community consultation exhibition, presentations and village character appraisals workshops has produced the evidence required for the draft Neighbourhood Plan. Further development in Wisborough Green is inevitable, and acceptable, to most in the realisation that a living, thriving village require sufficient housing stock that is flexible to the needs of the local community. The Wisborough Green Neighbourhood Plan will allow us to ensure that the landscape and character of the village is protected as this happens. It enables us to participate in how the community is developed and provides the opportunity to influence where the new houses are to be built, and what they look like. The Parish Council, with voluntary help and support from additional villagers, believes that the hard work and determination dedicated to the Wisborough Green Neighbourhood Plan has resulted in the production of a Plan that best suits the current requirements of the community, and is worthy of the responsibility of taking Wisborough Green into the future. What do you need to do? Firstly: Read the Plan: The Plan can be found:
Secondly: Let us know what you think by 12 noon on Monday 16th February 2015. Return the form: via the Parish Council post box at the village hall, collecting box at the Post Office, or bring it along to the Village Hall on Friday 16th January (3 pm – 8 pm) or Saturday 17th January (10 am to 4 pm) or return by post to: What happens if we don’t have a Neighbourhood Plan? New development is inevitable. Without a Neighbourhood Plan, development applications and their approval could revert directly to CDC policies without recourse to local influence or opinion. Applications could be approved far in excess of the allocated site requirement of a minimum of 60 houses and the village would have little influence on the position or design of such housing. The feedback received through this consultation process will be considered by the Parish Council in their determination of the content of the final Plan which we are hoping to submit to both Chichester District Council and the South Downs National Park Authority in the spring of 2015. There will then be a formal consultation, an examination by a Planning Inspector and a local referendum. Hopefully, by the autumn of 2015, Wisborough Green will have its own Neighbourhood Plan.
THE PROCESS – details of the creation of the Plan as recorded in Parish Council Newsletters and circulated to all households. EVIDENCE BASE – on which the Plan was based, including consultation evidence and site analysis. RESPONSE FORM – download here, complete and return by email to plan@wisboroughgreenpc.org |
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