We will begin to upload the evidence base for the draft neighbourhood plan.
The development of the Plan has been driven by a steering group, comprised of residents and parish councillors. It was recognised at an early stage that for the Plan to be truly representative of the planning issues of relevance in the town and parishes and to be the community’s Plan, we would need to conduct thorough engagement with those who live and work in the parish. We also recognised that the Plan could not be properly developed without the input of organisations and agencies with a district, county, sub-regional or national remit. The process and types of consultation and discussion that we have gone through is documented in detail in our Consultation Statement which accompanies this Plan. However, the key methods we have used have included:
Public exhibitions, meetings and events;
A community questionnaire sent to all households;
A business survey sent to all businesses;
A young people’s event;
Directly contacting wider-than-local organisations and agencies (strategic stakeholders) which have an interest in planning issues in the town and parishes; and, Our development of the Plan was based on a desire to be open and encouraging comments and contributions from all quarters with the aim being to achieve consensus, but also to have debates about issues where the community was divided in its views.
