Review of our Neighbourhood Plan
Draft Proposals: Click the image to enlarge
The Neighbourhood Plan, which became part of the District Council’s Planning Policy in 2016, is due to be updated. Over the last 18 months a team of four Councillors and eight volunteers has been reviewing the Plan and proposing revisions. These are necessary in some cases because of changes to National and Local Policies, including the declaration of a climate emergency by the County, District and Town Councils, and the need to move towards a carbon neutral future. In addition, the Plan has not always had the intended effect at the District Council’s planning process, despite being supported by a referendum of Southwell’s residents.
Since the District Council has not allocated any more houses to Southwell, the review does not propose any additional housing sites over and above those in the original plan. The main changes are a strengthening of policies to safeguard our environment and to require developers to construct houses with more environmentally friendly features. Other policies are being revised to respond to changing circumstances over the last six years.
The Council has obtained grants to cover the cost of Planning Consultants who are working on elements of the scheme outside the expertise of our team. We are hoping that they will finish their work in September which will enable us to consult with you, our residents sometime in October.
We will be doing this through a series of meetings and workshops, and we hope that you will be able to join us and help shape the future of Southwell together with Normanton and Maythorne, the other villages in our parish. We will have more details in the October Bramley.