Neighbourhood Plan
Parish Plans were announced in the Rural White Paper ‘Our Countryside, Our Future’ and we set out a vision of how the community wants to develop and identify the action needed to achieve it.
The Parish Plan is important because it is intended to influence a wide range of organisations and processes, which affect the lives of our village community.
In February 2007 14 people met for the first time to form a steering committee with the objective of developing a Parish Plan, together with an action plan and presenting it to the Parish Council for approval before publication. The steering committee was well supported in this process by officers of the Rural Community Council.
The key task of the steering committee during the summer months of 2007 was to identify and gather the views and opinions of as many people, groups, organisations and businesses as possible. The involved the production, distribution, collection and subsequent analysis of a questionnaire aimed at every household in the village.
The effort was worthwhile because by the deadline 146 questionnaires were returned by the deadline, and analysed by the Rural Community Council.
Following this analysis a ‘Summary Report’ was prepared and distributed to all households, groups, organisations and businesses in the village.
Next, a successful ‘ Community Planning Day’ was held on 12th January 2008 when more detailed presentations were made on the findings to residents of Gunthorpe. The following priority items are listed:
- Improved access to the A6097 from the north end of Main Street (As of 2026 we are still lobbying on this)
- A revised plan regarding flooding and its implementation (Our Flood team continuously update plans)
- Renewable energy and conservation initiatives (the Nature reserve has been opened)
- Improvements at the riverside
- A new or improved village hall / sports pavilion (Improvements to the Village Hall happening and still on going)
- A village web site (and here you have it!)
Third parties, such as Newark & Sherwood District Council, the Environment Agency and the Highways Agency were invited for further consultation at the next stage during February 2008 – the ‘Community Action Planning Event’.
They participated so that actions agreed really were actionable and that the Parish Plan when we published were able to realistically influence the future plans and decision-making processes.
The steering committee have and continued to use the Parish Plan to encourage the District Council, County Council and others to work on the action points. When the steering committee was satisfied with the content of the Parish Plan it was once more taken back to the community for final consultation. The Parish Council were involved at each stage of the process and approved the final Parish Plan before publication and adoption as policy.
The Government have asked if a new Planning Neighbourhood plan should now be looked at. A decision was taken by the Parish Council in March 2026 not to go ahead, as it is looking for areas to develop housing etc and as Gunthorpe Parish is a major flood plan and catchment area for the River Trent, the benefits of undertaking such a review is not cost effective. (Circ. £10k to £20k as of 2026 to implement) Any individual planning applications are decided on an individual basis when submitted by the Counties planning teams with Parish input.