The Neighbourhood Plan (NP) will give our community a statutory influence over Planning decisions in the Parish and our work on it is accelerating. This year has seen development of NP policies on Landscape and the Natural Environment, Housing and the Built Environment and Business and Employment.
As part of that process, last year we issued a ‘Call for Sites’ and eleven residential sites were proposed. These were tested against the NP Objectives which the Parish has so strongly supported and also independently tested for sustainability. A short list was further tested in our recent community consultation, and we thank all those who replied or came along to the drop-in sessions.
As a result the Foxs Lane site on the south-east edge of Penwood will go forward in the NP.
The next stage is to develop further our policies on protecting valued views and green spaces, and begin to prepare the (extensive) evidence required to support all our policies. We must also compile documentation to show that Plan development has been done according to the strict statutory requirements.
All this takes significant effort from the Steering Group and our external support, so we are also pleased to say that delayed Government funding has now been released and we have been awarded sufficient to take us close to our goal.
Our next milestone, due by Christmas, is the delivery of a draft of the Plan which can go to an open consultation, when you will be able to see the whole Plan for the first time and have further opportunity to comment.
Please direct questions about the Plan to Colin Wall at colin.n.wall@gmail.com