Baughurst Neighbourhood Plan
What is a Neighbourhood Plan?
A Neighbourhood Plan is where the planning policies for a specific area are decided and defined by people who live and work there.
It is a way our community of residents and those who work in Baughurst Parish can democratically make decisions about how we shape the future of our beautiful Parish and influence local planning decisions.
It is neither for nor against development but aims to ensure we get the development we, as a community need and those areas or features which are special to us, get protection. It aims to ensure appropriate development in appropriate places.
If we can successfully write a plan and have it adopted, the Borough Council and Planning Inspectors will need to take it into consideration when reaching planning decisions in our Parish. But to write it, we need YOU!
Why do we need one?
Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council (BDBC) have a Draft Local Plan which covers issues in the Borough but it is not specific to our parish. The Borough is under increasing pressure to build more homes and without a Neighbourhood Plan (NP) we have no say about what sort of homes or where they might go should developers and planners start looking at our parish.
Do other parishes in the area have one?
Yes. Ecchinswell, Kingsclere and Ashford Hill to name but three. This means development in those areas must consider the wishes of local people.
Who writes the Neighbourhood Plan?
People who live or work in Baughurst Parish write this plan and have to vote in favour of it at referendum, so we absolutely need the whole community to come on this journey.
Local volunteers who love our parish and want to protect the bits they care about are starting work on this. The Parish Council will have to sign it off and submit it to the Borough further down the line because they are our 'qualifying body'. We therefore have parish councillors also very involved, but we need as many members of the local community to help us as this is a big piece of work and ' many hands make light work'!
Also, everyone needs to understand what it is about and to feel they have had their say if we are to get it past referendum, so, please, get involved however you feel you can, whether in attending information giving meetings, filling in questionnaires or volunteering to sit on sub-groups or gather evidence. We need you all!
What is the process and how long does it take?
It is not unusual for a Neighbourhood Plan to take two years to become adopted and because of changes to the Borough Local Plan, ours may take longer. The process is a legal one and has 9 basic stages.
Designate the area - this has been done and is all of Baughurst Parish
Establish working groups, gather views and evidence from the community. We are in this part of the process now.
Find out if the plan will need an environmental assessment and get one done if it does.
Prepare a draft NP with locally specific policies. (Anything already covered in the Local Plan does not need covering again in our NP.)
Pre- submission publicity and public consultation organised by the Parish Council
Preparation of a submission plan
The Parish Council submits the NP to BDBC to organise a second statutory public consultation
The Plan is then independently examined and reported upon by a Government Inspector
A referendum is organised within the Parish by BDBC and if more than 50% of people who vote say 'yes', it becomes 'made' or adopted