The current Neighbourhood Plan, adopted as planning policy by Chichester District Council (CDC) in July 2016, has worked well for the village, standing up to scrutiny and protecting the village on several occasions from inappropriate development.
However, the Chichester Local Plan, adopted in 2015, was required by the inspector to be reviewed within five years to ensure that sufficient housing was planned to meet the district’s need.
The housing allocation for the district comes from central government.
The Local Plan review was a protracted process, and the updated Local Plan was not adopted as planning policy until August 2025.
To ensure the village has control over housing locations, the Parish Council agreed to undertake a review of the Neighbourhood Plan in Autumn 2018 when asked to do so by CDC.
The process was started in 2019 (some of you may recall earlier consultations). As there was uncertainty over the housing allocation and the new Local Plan was not adopted planning policy, the process was put on hold in 2022.
Throughout the Local Plan consultations, the Parish Council made strong rebuff to the housing allocation, making representation at every opportunity including to the government appointed inspectors at the examination hearings.
The inspectors confirmed the allocation to Wisborough Green. The village has been allocated a further 75 dwellings in addition to the 68 allocated in the original Neighbourhood Plan, of which 51 are built and a further 6 committed, in total 57.
The Clark’s Yard site has been withdrawn from this reviewed Neighbourhood Plan. As such, this undeveloped site from the original Neighbourhood Plan cannot be taken forward in the reviewed Neighbourhood Plan. A replacement site for 11 dwellings needs to be found, so the number has been increased to 86 dwellings.
Recent planning permissions, Barnfield Shaw and Tanglewood Nursery, provide 18 dwellings towards this number, so there is now a requirement to find sites for 68 dwellings.
The village now needs to decide where these dwellings should be located otherwise CDC will decide which may not be the village’s preference.
