Neighbourhood Plan
Published: 05 July 2021
At long last, the Westbourne Neighbourhood Plan is going to public referendum. The date for your diary is Thursday 29 July. Polling cards should drop through your door very soon.
- The Plan has been published in full on the Chichester District Council website.
- The District Council has also published information on its website about the referendum and how to register to vote.
- Background documentation is available on the Parish Council website.
The Neighbourhood Plan - eight years in the making
Westbourne electors are being asked to have their say on the Westbourne Neighbourhood Plan at a referendum on Thursday 29 July. The Plan sets out a vision for the area through to 2029, and is supported by a number of planning policies. The Plan:
- sets out where any new homes are to be built. The government allocates a number of new houses to local planning authorities which is then passed to towns and parishes
- provides a comprehensive parish profile against which future development and infrastructure needs can be assessed
- ensures that any future development will not damage the social, economic and environmental sustainability of the Parish
- considers the settlement boundary, and identifies and protects local gaps to prevent coalescence as well as important views and local greenspaces
- includes a community balance policy which ensures that the number of Gypsy, Traveller and Travelling Showpeople pitches and plots do not in any way overwhelm the settled community
- refers to an updated Village Design Statement which aims to protect Westbourne’s unique character
- means that 25% of Community Infrastructure Levy (a charge which can be levied by local authorities on new development in their area) goes directly to the Parish to be spent in a way the people of Westbourne see fit.
Many of you will have followed progress with the Neighbourhood Plan, through involvement in the comprehensive consultation process and regular reports in the Westbourne Magazine. For several years, the Steering Group beavered away on the Plan, one of the central planks being the identification of locations for the 25 houses that were allocated to us by the local planning authority. 17 sites were put forward by landowners and, after a thorough selection process governed by robust criteria, three sites were identified. We were just at the point of submitting the Plan when the news came through that an appeal at what was to become The Shire (on the corner of North Street and Long Copse Lane) had been lost. This site, which had not been identified as a location for development in the Neighbourhood Plan, was therefore retrospectively included and sat alongside two further sites: east of Monk’s Hill (six houses) and the corner of Foxbury Lane and Cemetery Lane (six houses) taking us up to a total of 28.
In the autumn of 2017, after four and half years of hard work, the Neighbourhood Plan was formally examined and it was expected that, after a number of recommendations were taken into account, it would soon go to public referendum. At the time we had absolutely no idea that the goalposts would be moved and that the Plan would be subjected to further processes and consultations (administered by Chichester District Council) before it could be put to the people of Westbourne. Thankfully, the end is in sight and the public referendum will take place on 29 July of this year.
Nearly there!
As it appears to have gone down so well in the 2016 EU Referendum, we were tempted to use the slogan ‘Take back control’ for the forthcoming Neighbourhood Plan referendum. However, we have declined to do so, as this would not be a true or accurate representation of the situation. Westbourne never did have control over the amount of houses built in the Parish: this has always been in the gift of the government whose responsibility it is to ensure that the nation is adequately housed.
However, since the introduction of neighbourhood plans in 2011 government guidance states: Communities [have been given] direct power to develop a shared vision for their neighbourhood and shape the development and growth of their local area. They are able to choose where they want new homes, shops and offices to be built, have their say on what those new buildings should look like and what infrastructure should be provided, and grant planning permission for the new buildings they want to see go ahead. Neighbourhood planning provides a powerful set of tools for local people to plan for the types of development to meet their community’s needs and where the ambition of the neighbourhood is aligned with the strategic needs and priorities of the wider local area.
In other words, under the Localism Act of 2011, local communities have been given powers that they did not have before and, in 2013, Westbourne Parish Council, not wishing to let the opportunity pass them by, set up a Steering Group to put together a neighbourhood plan for Westbourne.
Planning for new housing
Every local planning authority is allocated a number of houses by the government which are then allocated to the towns and parishes in the district or borough. Challenging this allocation is possible in theory but is, in practice, unlikely to succeed. What the town or parish can, however, do, is decide where these houses are to be built and what they should look like. Were Westbourne not to have a neighbourhood plan it would be open season for developers, who could apply to build houses wherever land is available rather than in locations identified by those who live in the parish.
What, you may ask, is not to like about having a neighbourhood plan? It’s not everyday that local communities are given decision-making powers so it would surely be negligent were we to let this opportunity pass by. The Plan will eventually become, alongside Chichester District Council’s Local Plan, the starting point for deciding where development should take place and the type and quality of that development. In other words, it will be a statutory document that cannot be ignored!