Lower Winterborne Neighbourhood Plan

What is a Neighbourhood Plan?

A neighbourhood plan (the Plan) is a document that sets out housing, amenity, conservation, infrastructure and business needs of a local area.

The plan is written by the local community, the people who know and love the area, to ensure the community gets the right types of development, in the right places.

Plans are based on the results of consultations with parish residents and businesses on local issues such as:

• what we can do for our residents, particularly the younger and older residents, to give them the support and opportunities they need to thrive.
• what social amenities (e.g. shops, a village pub, village hall, the church, the school) are needed to support the village and residents
• whether we want to attract businesses to locate in the village and if so how much land and buildings we allocate for their use
• how we preserve and improve our local natural environment, including wildlife habitats
• how we can improve our resilience to the impacts of climate change e.g. flooding
• whether we want more people to live in the village, where any new housing should be located and whether this should be affordable or market sale or for rent
• how we can influence the movement of people and goods in and out of the village, including the impacts of traffic in our area
• what recreational facilities we need (e.g playing fields, allotments) and how and where these might be provided

There is more information on neighbourhood plans at:
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/neighbourhood-planning--2.

What area does the neighbourhood plan cover?

Lower Winterborne Parish comprises the amalgamation of the former parishes of Winterborne Kingston, Anderson and Winterborne Zelston. However, with effect from later this year, the former parish of Winterborne Zelston is to become a separate entity, so this Neighbourhood Plan has been agreed as relating to the area of the former parishes of Winterborne Kingston and Anderson as shown on the plan below.

How will the Plan be prepared?

There are 3 main stages to preparing the Plan:

Stage 1: Getting established

  • Designation of the neighbourhood area – Completed as above.
  • Building an evidence base – starting with the questionnaire below,
    so we have a good understanding of our village and who our residents   
    are.
  • Options Consultation – based upon the feedback of residents to the questionnaire, we will set out some options for the future development of the Village. We will want your feedback on these initial ideas so look out for further announcements on this.

Stage 2: Preparing the Plan

  • Drafting the plan – Once we have your feedback to the options, we will start drafting our Plan. This will take about 6 months.
  • Meeting the basic conditions – which means that in writing our Plan, we need to have regard to national policies (including the National Planning Policy Framework) and advice contained in guidance issued by the Secretary of State. A neighbourhood plan must not constrain the delivery of important national policy objectives.
  • Pre-submission consultation – we will invite residents and other stakeholders (including Dorset Council) to review the draft Plan and provide further feedback to us. Again, please look out for further announcements on this.

Stage 3: Bringing the Plan into force.

  • Submission -once we are happy that the plan reflects the aspirations of the Village, the Plan will be submitted to Dorset County Council (who are the local planning authority) so they have the opportunity to comment and confirm that our proposals align with planning policy for the County
    .
  • Publicity
  • Independent examination by a person who is approved by the residents who are responsible for the Plan.
  • Referendum
  • Adoption (when the plan officially becomes part of the development plan for the area

The Lower Winterborne Neighbourhood Plan is currently in Stage 1 of the process and the intention is to have the plan adopted by 2026, covering the period to around 2036. There will be plenty of chances to have your say throughout the process. Ultimately the decision to adopt the Neighbourhood Plan will be down to the community, through a referendum.

Timeline

Based upon the experience of other villages, a Plan typically takes 2-3 years to be drafted, approved and adopted by the Village and the local planning authority.

Please fill in the household questionnaire!

We need to know what the community thinks are the important issues so that we can make sure that the Plan reflects these views so please fill in our first questionnaire! You can do this by scanning the QR code below or at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/N5TBT3S or pick up a paper copy from The Greyhound, the Phone Box at Winterborne Kingston Village Hall, St Nicholas Church or The Community Hub (return boxes are also available at these locations). If you have any questions about the plan please contact the Parish Clerk at clerk@lowerwinterborne-pc.gov.uk.

Please fill in the survey by Friday 12th April 2024.

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