At the last meeting of the Lower Winterborne Parish Council, it was agreed that a Neighbourhood Plan would be prepared to cover the whole of the Parish Council’s administrative area.
The Localism Act, 2011, introduced the right for communities to draw up Neighbourhood Plans to provide more detail in respect of new development in their areas. A Neighbourhood Plan is a document prepared by the local community which sets out more local policies against which development proposals will be judged. When made and approved, a Neighbourhood Plan will form part of the Development Plan for an area. Currently, the Development Plan for this area is the North Dorset Local Plan Part 1 adopted in 2016 together with policies retained from the North Dorset Plan adopted in 2003. The new Dorset Council is preparing a new Local Plan to cover the whole of the new authority’s administrative area. It is, therefore, timely for a Neighbourhood Plan to be prepared for the Parish.
Where a Parish Council chooses to produce a Neighbourhood Plan, it should work with other members of the community who are interested in, or affected by, the neighbourhood planning proposals to allow them to play an active role in preparing the Neighbourhood Plan. A Parish Council may choose to establish an advisory committee or sub-committee and appoint local people (who may not be Parish Councillors) to those bodies. To this end, the Parish Council now invites parishioners or other parties to confirm their interest in working with the Parish Council in preparing a Neighbourhood Plan for the area.
If you would be interested in being involved in the preparation of the Neighbourhood Plan, please confirm your interest to Amanda Crocker, Clerk to Lower Winterborne Parish Council, Rye Hill Farm, Bere Regis, Dorset, BH20 7LP (01929 472327), email lowerwinterborne@dorset-aptc.gov.uk