How do you create a Neighbourhood Plan?
There are five main steps to creating and implementing a Neighbourhood Plan which are outlined below.
Community consultation and gathering of evidence – the whole point of a neighbourhood plan is that it is community led and reflects the views of the community.
This involves getting feedback from lots of people locally – residents, businesses, community groups, schools – to find out what’s important to them about where they live, what they’d like to improve and what their vision is for the local area.
This can be by talking to people, holding meetings and conducting surveys. In this way, and from other sources – local and central government, government agencies, non-governmental agencies and commercial organisations we can begin to build the evidence that is needed to support and substantiate the neighbourhood plan.
Setting up and determining the area to be covered by the Plan – in our case it is all Wellow Parish so this includes West and East Wellow, Canada, Shootash and The Frenches and Embley Park.
Submitting the plan – once the draft neighbourhood plan is complete, referred to as the “Pre-submission Draft”, it is subject to a six-week consultation (organised in our case by the Parish). Members of the Parish, statutory consultees and other interested parties are invited to submit comments. Subject to any amendments needed following the consultation, the draft, now known as the “Submission Draft” is submitted to the local planning authorities (in our case Test Valley Borough Council and New Forest National Park Authority). It then becomes their responsibility to take the Plan forward to completion and implementation. They check that correct procedures have been followed and that all required documents have been submitted and then arrange for an independent examiner to be appointed. It is his or her job to check that the plan meets the basic conditions and is fit for purpose. These conditions are that the plan must:
- have regard to national policy
- contribute to the achievement of sustainable development
- be in general conformity with the strategic policies in the development plan for the local area
- be compatible with EU obligations as transposed into English Law
The local planning authorities then conduct a further consultation on the draft Plan, members of the community, statutory consultees and any other stakeholders, such as landowners and developers, may comment, or object to anything in the Plan. Any representations are sent to the examiner. Following review of the Plan and the representations, the examiner will recommend on further action to be taken and will refer the plan back to the local authorities, and in turn, to the neighbourhood (in our case Wellow Parish). Finally, if the plan meets the basic conditions and all other aspects are agreed upon, the local authority will organise a public referendum (vote), so that everyone who lives in the neighbourhood plan area can decide whether they support it.
Implementing the plan – if more than 50% of the voters are in favour of the plan, the local authorities must bring it into force and it will then form part of the statutory development plan for that area.
Any decisions about whether to grant planning permission in the neighbourhood area in the future must be made by taking the neighbourhood plan into consideration.
How far have we got with the Plan?
The area for the Wellow Neighbourhood Plan was designated June 2016 and a Steering Committee established with terms of reference. Volunteers were called for a team and a number of subgroups established to progress the work.
The Plan has gone through all the steps up to submission to the local planning authorities. An independent examiner has reviewed the draft Plan. Test Valley sent out the the draft Plan for a further six-week consultation at the end of 2023. A number of representations were received from individuals, statutory consultees and other interested parties, these were passed to the examiner.
Following the adoption of the recommmendations of the independent examiner and their incorporation in the Plan, Test Valley Borough Council and New Forest National Park Authority have agreed to the Plan proceeding to a referendum on 11th July 2024. All eligible voters in the Parish are entitled to vote on its adoption. If the Plan is agreed by a simple vote then it will be adopted or “made”.
This Plan has been the culmination of some years of activity including:
Developing the Evidence Base – we have developed an extensive evidence base using local sources (Parish records and local knowledge from members of the community), the local planning authorities (Test Valley Borough Council and the New Forest National Park), Hampshire County Council (Hampshire Biodiversity Information Centre), government agencies (Environment Agency, Historic England, Natural England, ONS, Ordnance Survey) and aerial imagery.
Those documents that have resulted can be found on the Evidence Base page.
Framing a vision and objectives – based on an analysis of the results of the parish-wide questionnaire we developed a vision of what Wellow should be like in 2035, 17 years from the date of the survey. We identified key themes or topics of concern to the community and framed some key objectives that needed to be met by the Neighbourhood Plan.
These key objectives are: conserving and enhancing biodiversity – the rural character and natural landscape of the Parish; meeting the housing needs whilst endeavouring to maintain a sustainable level of amenities and facilities for residents; having appropriate development in sustainable locations; having a balance of house types and sizes reflecting the local need and improving the built environment.
Drafting of policies – building on the vision and key objectives, a draft set of policies was developed, these policies cover: sustainable development, housing, the countryside and natural environment, flooding and drainage, built environment, community, local business and employment and transport and highways. The key policies were the subject of a community consultation in Autumn 2021. The policies were further developed and amended in the light of the consultation.
Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) and Habitats Regulations Assessments (HRA) – evidence was submitted to the local planning authorities (Test Valley Borough Council and New Forest National Park) for a screening by them of the need for an SEA and HRA. Both authorities agreed that the assessments were required. Technical support was sought and obtained through the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. The consultants completed their reports which are available on the Evidence Base page under “Key references cited in the Neighbourhood Plan”. The recommendations from these reports were incorporated into the draft Neighbourhood Plan – see below.
Submission of draft Plan – a draft of the Neighbourhood Plan was completed at the end of the 2022 and what is termed the “Pre-submission Draft” was made available for review by the community for a six week period during January and February 2023. A final revision of the draft termed the “Submission Version of the Draft” has been prepared following comment. This was submitted to the local planning authorities in October 2023.