Neighbourhood Plan Newsletter #2

Posted on By Town Clerk

A newsletter about the Neighbourhood Plan has been distributed to homes in the town. We hope you received a copy through the door, but if not then you can read it below, or download and print the PDF. This is an important newsletter all about upcoming consultation events. The first one, on Sunday 22 June in the Cotswold Hall, is about traffic and parking issues in the town. Come along and tell us what you think!

[dg]

 

Welcome to this, the second newsletter for the Northleach Neighbourhood Plan.

WHY DO WE NEED A
NEIGHBOURHOOD PLAN?

Our local planning authority, Cotswold District Council, is preparing a new Local Plan that will set out how much, what type and where new development should take place over the next 20 years. Northleach has been identified as one of several “key settlements” and as a result, the town is expected to provide 130 new houses by 2031. Rather than leave decisions entirely in the hands of the planners, we can have some say in how, where and when this development takes place. This is where the Neighbourhood Plan comes in.

In October last year, the Town Council decided to begin the process of producing a Neighbourhood Plan. A Steering Group was formed to guide this process, made up of local residents, members of the Town Council, and led by the District Councillor.

The plan is now moving on to the consultation stage, where we ask the community – YOU – what is important to the future development of our town.

Find out more on our website:
www.northleach.gov.uk/ndp

A SUMMER OF EVENTS

Northleach is YOUR town and we want you to help decide its future. Over the next couple of months we will be asking what you think using exhibitions and by visiting local clubs, societies and schools to talk about the future development of the town. We will be holding open days in June and July. Look out for posters around town.

We will bring our giant map of Northleach to the Charter Fair on 28 June. Come and see us and add your suggestions to the map. Where do you want to see houses, parking, green spaces, and employment areas? How could the town be improved?

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY
Open Day – Sunday 22nd June, 10am – 5pm @ The Cotswold Hall
Charter Fair – Saturday 28th June, 11am – 5pm on the KGV Playing Field
Open Day – Saturday 5th July, 10am – 5pm @ The Cotswold Hall
Open Day – Saturday 19th July, 10am – 5pm @ The Westwoods Centre

We are also looking for volunteers to join working groups to look more closely at topics of interest in the town, namely:

  • traffic and parking;
  • leisure activities and play; and
  • local business and employment.

Please get in touch if you would like to get involved, especially if you have expertise or interest in these subjects.

Finally, we will be capturing your views on all these issues using a survey. Over the next few weeks we will be distributing the survey to every household in town. Please take the time to complete and return the survey.

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED!
We need volunteers to help with displays exhibitions and work groups. If you would like to help, contact the Town Clerk on 01451 861499 or clerk@northleach.gov.uk

Feedback Forms & Indicative Plans for Land off Bassett Road

Posted on By Town Clerk

SF Planning, the planning consultancy firm engaged by Gloucestershire County Council, has kindly provided us with a copy of the indicative plans for the land off Bassett Road field.

These plans do not represent the final layout for the proposed development, but are to form the focus for discussion about the County Council’s plans for the land.

The boards and feedback box have been collected from the Westwoods Centre today, but SF Planning is accepting email comments up until Friday 2nd May.

Please email or return your comments to SF Planning Ltd, 12 Royal Crescent, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, GL50 3DA or info@sfplanning.co.uk.

Please note that the plan is copyrighted so can only be reproduced with express permission from the scheme designer Trower Davies.

Click the image to download the PDF. The file size is 12 MB, so depending on your internet conection, it may take a while to download.

Public Consultation on Bassett Road Field

Posted on By Town Clerk

Gloucestershire County Council has agreed to extend today’s Public Consultation on Bassett Road field until next week. Apologies for the late notice as this has only just been confirmed. We hope that this will assist those people who were unable to make this afternoon’s meeting and apologies to those who have already rearranged their day around this.

Therefore the Public Consultation meeting today is still on from 3pm – 6.45pm at the Westwoods Centre. However GCC will then leave the displays and opportunities for comment with us for a few days. The Tayler Room (on the right of the foyer entrance) will hold the display until the end of Tuesday 29th April.

The Westwoods will be open at the following times to accommodate this.

Friday 25th 8.30 – 4pm
Saturday 26th 10 – 2pm
Sunday 27th 10 – 2pm
Monday 28th 8.30 – 7pm
Tuesday 29th 8.30 – 7pm

Kind regards
Cat Crompton

Clerk
Northleach with Eastington Town Council

Update on the Public Consultation Meeting on 15th March

Posted on By Town Clerk

The public meeting on Saturday 15th March was well attended and people took the opportunity to comment on the site assessments that had been carried out by members of the Steering Group, Councillors and some residents on 14 areas across Town.

Cotswold District Council (CDC) had asked for feedback on four sites by the end of March. These key areas are – the Fortey House site, the field at Bassett Road, the field to the East of Nostle Road and the Ferrari garage site. These sites were identified by CDC at the beginning of the year as being the ones they want to focus on. At a Local Plan meeting in January, they issued Northleach and other town councils with a “toolkit” with which to assess these. The site assessments will be submitted to CDC this week.

The Steering Group had also decided it would be a good opportunity to assess an additional 10 sites which were previously identified as having potential for development. These are currently listed as “unsuitable” by CDC but the assessments will help to form part of the Northleach Neighbourhood Development Plan. These additional assessments will not be submitted to CDC but will be used for the NNDP in order to look at the whole Northleach picture.

In addition to commenting on the site assessments, people took the chance to comment generally on the plan and Northleach as a whole which is very helpful. We have collated the display information, site assessments and feedback comments and these are now available to view at the Westwoods Centre. You can continue to make comments on all of these assessments for the next few months and these will form part of the NDP.

Kind regards
Cat Crompton

Clerk
Northleach with Eastington Town Council

Neighbourhood Development Plan Update

Posted on By Town Clerk

Good progress is being made on the Northleach Neighbourhood Development Plan (NNDP).

CDC has confirmed in the last week that the area identified for the purposes of the plan (the whole of the Parish) has been designated.

The Steering Group approached 5 consultants to quote on assisting with the legal and professional elements that the Steering Group need support on. Three of the consultants submitted quotes and the Group agreed to go with rCOH Ltd. The Steering Group believed that they understood the brief and vision for the NNDP most fully.

A grant form to request financial support has been submitted to Neighbourhood Planning.

CDC held a Local Plan workshop in January at the Westwoods and we were able to send 4 people to it. As part of this, the steering Group was asked to review potential development sites around Northleach using a site assessment template provided. The Steering Group assisted by some volunteer residents has now completed this work. The results need to be submitted to CDC by the end of March but first the Steering Group would like to present the site assessments for feedback and further public consultation.

To gather this an open public meeting will take place on Saturday 15th March between Midday and 5pm at the Westwoods Centre. Everyone is welcome and it will be an opportunity to offer feedback and information about all of the Town’s potential development sites. If you are unable to make this date, don’t worry we still really want your feedback and the details will be available to view at the Westwoods until Friday 21st March.

Kind regards
Cat Crompton

Clerk
Northleach with Eastington Town Council