The Neighbourhood Plan was developed following the views submitted by over-1100 responses to a survey carried out with the over-4000 households throughout the Parish. The Plan shapes our parish for the next 20 years; it includes a vision of the future and policies to help achieve that, ranging from development and agriculture to business, environment and traffic. The Plan went for public consultation in May and June 2024; since the consultation ended, the responses have been carefully considered and the Plan revised to take them into account. In addition, the opportunity has been taken to review the structure of the Plan and its supporting documents to make them easier to read and assimilate. The result is a new draft of the Plan and a full revise (and completion) of the Evidence Base documentation.
The new draft Plan (Neighbourhood Plan Draft Regulation 15/16 Version) can be downloaded from this link to the Parish Council’s Neighbourhood Plan website: https://welwyn-pc.gov.uk/neighbourhood-plan-site/ Navigate to the upper left-hand panel and select the document you want to download.
Other documents can also be accessed from there:
Evidence Base documents: Parish Portrait; Survey Report; Local Green Spaces; Key Views; Non-Designated Heritage Assets; Supplementary Information (which contains added information related to the Plan but for brevity has been removed from the main Plan itself); Open Spaces (which details further open areas in the parish such as Urban Open Land, Local Nature Reserves and Local Wildlife Sites – to complete the picture – these are not being affected by the Plan);
Statutory documents: Consultation Statement (describing the process of involvement and consultation, the responses and how they were dealt with) and the Basic Conditions Statement (describing how the Plan satisfies the prescribed legal criteria); both are legally required to be submitted;
Supporting documents: further documentation originated by others (e.g. the Borough Council’s Local Plan) and other reference material. Navigate to https://welwyn-pc.gov.uk/neighbourhood-plan-supporting-documents/ or use the lower left-hand panel and select Neighbourhood Plan Supporting Documents and then select the document you want to download.
All documents are in .pdf format. Please bear in mind these current versions have been tested with an independent planning consultant but are still drafts and so are subject to revision by the team doing the work.
The next steps are:
- to complete drafting of all the documentation;
- full check to ensure: compliance, consistency, formatting and proofing;
- informal discussion between the Parish Council and the Borough Council Planning Department to ensure the next phase goes without any hitches;
- prepare the pack for formal handover to the Borough Council Planning Department under Regulation 15 of the Neighbourhood Planning (General) Regulations 2021 (as amended)
As part of the Regulation 15 phase there will be a further round of consultation (particularly with statutory bodies). The results of that consultation will be passed to the independent examiner appointed to review the Plan, under Regulation 16 and from there (assuming the examiner is satisfied the Plan is sound) we move to a referendum on the Plan. A simple majority of residents in favour will ensure the Plan is supported and after that the Borough Council will declare the Plan as “made”.
The aim is to pass the Plan formally across to the Borough Council in early May; from there, the statutory Regulation 15 & 16 processes are beyond the Parish Council’s control.
Any queries on the Plan (or other documentation) should be addressed to the Deputy Clerk (at the Parish Offices) who will endeavour to respond (or ensure that you receive a response form the Steering Group) as soon as possible.
Our thanks go to Councillor Bill Morris who has led the work of writing the plan. WPAG has been represented on the Steering Group for the Plan by Russell Haggar and Sandra Saunders and WPAG members have also contributed to its drafting and preparation.