Neighbourhood Plan reaches the final stretch – make sure your views are heard

We are reaching the final stretch and the Neighbourhood Plan is almost finalised.   We are now holding a final community consultation in order to comply with planning legislation.  This is termed the Regulation 14 consultation and it starts today for seven weeks. After considering responses the plan will be sent to Colchester Borough Council which will begin the statutory processes for the plan’s formal adoption as planning policy.

The consultation will take the form of:

• The release of the Regulation 14 Neighbourhood Plan document.
• A Feedback form
• An exhibition

To find out more and to view the consultation material listed above please visit our Neighbourhood Plan pages.  We encourage everybody in the village to visit the main web-pages listed below; this will help to get you started:

• Introduction to Neighbourhood Plans.
• Why a Neighbourhood Plan?
• Frequently Asked Questions.
• NP Reg 14 downloadable documents – see the new page all about this consultation.

Exhibition

We urge Residents and Businesses to read the NP documentation and then visit the exhibition in order to further understand the proposals for:

• Locations for new housing and other community facilities.
• Policies covering future planning applications.
• The areas in our parish that we aim to protect.
• A range of community initiatives and aspirations.

Take time to read the full Reg 14 documentation, visit the exhibition and give us your feedback. This is the last of the community consultations which will take place. After this, our plan has to take its chances in the rarefied atmosphere of a statutory planning examination.  We will then call a referendum; after this, the plan can be declared a “statutory” plan.

Pivotal Point in the village’s history

As Chris Stevenson, Chairman of the Steering Group says:

The West Bergholt Neighbourhood Plan has taken several years to produce and I and my Steering group members have been delighted with the support received from the community to date. It has been my pleasure to lead a group of extremely motivated people, whose concerted effort has been to bring us to this point in the process. In this, the almost final version, we have taken on board many of the suggestions and comments received from previous consultations. What we need to do now is just check the final wording of the document and proposals contained. Please take the time to consider the plan and let us have your comments, not on the generality but on specific wording in the plan!

This is a pivotal point in our history. Never before has national and local government actually asked us to prepare our own plan to cover the next 15 years; make the most of this opportunity!

Chris Stevenson
Chairman West Bergholt Neighbourhood Plan Steering Group
Chairman West Bergholt Parish Council