by Wickhambrook Parish Clerk
Issues and Options consultation – Tuesday 13 October (9am) to Tuesday 22 December (5pm) 2020.
West Suffolk is starting to develop its Local Plan. A local plan provides a vision for the growth and development of an area and policies which sets out the way that the plan aims to meet the housing, employment, social and community needs of an area while at the same time protecting and enhancing the natural, built and historic environment.
This is the beginning of the process of drawing up a local plan for West Suffolk, which will provide strategic and local policies that will enable and guide the delivery of sustainable growth to 2040.
In brief the process can be described in three stages:
- This issues and options stage is the very beginning of the process of producing a plan for West Suffolk. Its scope is to identify the key strategic issues. The plan should address and set out options and initial ideas for the strategic policies in areas such as housing and economic growth and where the growth might take place (distribution), and the provision of strategic infrastructure. This is what is being consulted on now. If you would like to find out more about the process please follow this link for information about a meeting on Tuesday 8 December @ 6:30pm facilitated by Wickhambrook Parish Council and chaired by West Suffolk Councillor Mary Evans.Following its November meeting, Wickhambrook Parish Council has now submitted its agreed responses to West Suffolk’s 3 Questionnaires. You can view the Parish Council’s responses, and, if there is any part of it which helps you to formulate your own response to West Suffolk, you may of course cut and paste any sections or responses which assist you to convey your concerns.
Questionnaire One: West Suffolk’s Vision, Strategic Objectives and Planning Issues
Questionnaire Two: West Suffolk’s Local Planning Issues
Questionnaire Three: West Suffolk’s Settlements
- Further research and studies then need to be carried out to give West Suffolk the evidence we need to develop strategic and local policies. This work and responses to this issues and options stage will contribute to the next stage, the preferred options draft of the plan. West Suffolk anticipate that consultation on this next stage of preparing the plan will take place in 2021.
- Responses to consultation on the second document will inform the submission draft of the local plan (anticipated publication date January 2022 and it is this draft, together with the responses to it that will be examined by an independent inspector appointed by the Secretary of State.
You will be able to have a say at each stage of plan preparation – this issues and options stage is just the beginning. The evidence base that has been prepared to support the issues and options local plan includes:
- Sustainable settlements study – a study to identify those settlements in the district which would be the most appropriate to deliver sustainable growth and inform a new settlement hierarchy for the district.
- Strategic housing and economic land availability assessment (SHELAA) – It is part of the evidence base which underpins the local plan and is required by the NPPF (paragraph 67). The SHELAA provides a clear understanding of the availability, suitability and achievability of sites in the plan area, but does not allocate land for development nor does it indicate that planning permission would be granted for development of a site.
- Environmental constraints study – identifies the environmental and land use constraints in the district.
No decisions have been made, and West Suffolk has acknowledged it doesn’t have all the answers. Wickhambrook Parish Council will be considering its response to this consultation at its meeting on 26th November. It is important for us to hear your views and comments so they can be taken into account and influence the parish council’s response to this stage of developing the local plan.
You can find out more about the consultation, by visiting West Suffolk’s virtual exhibition: https://westsuffolk.exhibition.app/ . Due to the Coronavirus pandemic the issues and options consultation documents can only be viewed online. If you do not have access to a computer or the internet, please telephone Strategic Planning on 01284 757368 to speak with a planning officer who can advise on alternative ways of viewing the documents.
For more information about specific proposals for Wickhambrook by following these links:
Developing a Spatial Strategy: https://westsuffolk.inconsult.uk/consult.ti/WSLP_Issues_and_Options/view?objectID=11755476
Local Issues: https://westsuffolk.inconsult.uk/consult.ti/WSLP_Issues_and_Options/view?objectID=11737876
A number of parishes are preparing neighbourhood plans which when completed become legally binding and will form part of the development plan. The process of producing a neighbourhood plan should bring together residents, businesses, landowners and local groups to work together to build a consensus and plan the future of their local area. Whilst it is acknowledged that developing a Neighbourhood Plan is likely to take a lot of time and work, many parishes have seen benefits when responding to planning applications and ensuring that any development is sustainable for their parish.
Wickhambrook PC also has an opportunity to participate in a pilot Housing Needs Survey, supported through Community Action Suffolk and West Suffolk Council. A Housing Needs Survey seeks to identify if there is a local housing need in the parish, and if a need were to be established, to work with the parish to bring through a small development of housing for local people. Any properties on such a site, whether shared ownership or rented, would always remain in perpetuity for people with a local connection.
The Parish Council would value your opinion not just about the proposals within the Issues and Options consultation which relate to Wickhambrook, but also your views on the Parish developing a Neighbourhood Plan, and/or participating in a housing needs survey.
Please drop the clerk, Hilary Workman, a line at , with any key views or concerns arising from the Issues & Options Consultation, and your opinion as to whether Wickhambrook Parish Council should consider developing a Neighbourhood Plan, and/or, participate in a housing needs survey.
The next meeting of the Parish Council is on Thursday 26th November (by zoom), and you are welcome to attend. If you would like your views considered, please submit them in writing not later than Friday 13th November.