Neighbourhood Development Plan  

There have been three significant planning issue since the last edition of the ECN. In the last edition the editorial suggested the need to delay the NDP and to bring in new project team members. In the event, the project team determined that after nearly three years of work and being so close to completing the plan we should just get on and meet the deadline of January 11th.

The work and understanding the requirement is complex. Producing the plan is also expensive and finding and bringing new people up to speed would be time consuming for those on the team who have already given so much to bring the plan to fruition and of course it would add further to the cost. The team concluded that the responsible decision would be to complete the job and that is what we did. The plan was submitted on time although appendices went in on the 14th  January.

I took over as Chairman of the group from Peter Edis Bates last year for the final part of the plan’s development. I have seen first-­hand, the extraordinary amount of work needed in these last few months. All the team have contributed in their own way but a very special thank you must go to Pauline Allen, Parish Councillor and Mark Campbell whose huge contribution was not just hours but days of work into the last few drafts and the final version.

A very special thank you to our Parish Clerk, Julie Shirley, her task was to administer the whole process and draw the document together and produce the final version. I suspect the document was relatively easy compared to managing the project team members which made herding cats a very straightforward exercise. Julie spent most of the weekend before the deadline chasing agreements and working with an Independent planning examiner who undertook a Health Check on our work to ensure it complied with planning law and was effective in delivering our aspirations.

A big thank you to Muriel Bullock, the PC Chair who remained stalwart in her determination to see the plan delivered.

The plan for all to see is on the NDP Web site.

The next stage is for SDC conduct a 6 week consultation. All comments on the plan will be collated by Stroud DC and then the NDP will be submitted to a Planning Examiner for a detailed assessment. If any small adjustments are required they will be made at that stage and then the Plan will go for referendum in our Parish where we will need more than 50% of those that vote to approve it.

If the plan successfully passes the referendum it then has the same status in Law as the District’s local plan and will guide all future planning decisions in our Parish for the next 20 years. It will of course require the Parish to review it during the course of the next 5 years.

PLANNING APPLICATION, NUPEND

An application to build 6 houses (3 affordable and 3 market) had been submitted and approved under delegated powers by SDC. Stephen Davies, our District Councillor, asked for the application to be called in asthe decision had not been issued. In the event the DCC on the

12 th January rejected the application on grounds of sustainability. Recently an inspector overturned a refused application in Arlingham as it was in a field with services a little less than 2 miles away like Nupend. SDC are seeking a Judicial Review of the Inspector’s decision. Some Councillors believed consistency of approach was important. The Nupend application was rejected 5 votes to 4.

WEST OF STONEHOUSE

In April 2014 Hitchins submitted their planning application for WoS. The masterplan for this application was cut and paste into the SDC Local Plan and adopted as the SDC Masterplan. After two years of discussion and consultation on January  12 th DCC approved the Masterplan and planning application completely unchanged. 2 Councillors voted against it on grounds of no connectivity to Stonehouse removing any pretence that it was indeed an urban extension to the Town; Tom Williams, Cainscross, a long standing friend of our Parish and Stonehouse concerning WoS, and John Majoram (Trinity). Sadly it is just another estate in a field. This time it is a very large estate about half the size of Stonehouse. At this stage I do believe there is commitment from some Councillors and Officers to make the estate as attractive as possible. We all need to join this ambition and work with Robert Hitchins to do just that.

Daniel James | Don't Strangle Stroud (DSS)

http://www.eastingtonndp.co.uk