Neighbourhood Plan

Following last night's Parish Council Meeting, we would like to give you an update regarding the adoption of a Neighbourhood Plan for Smarden. Firstly, in June, we held an open 'fact finding' meeting in the Charter Hall where Simon Cole, Planning Policy Manager for Ashford Borough Council was our guest speaker. Simon's department oversee Neighbourhood Plans. From this meeting we were able to find out more about the pros and any cons of developing such a plan. We then set up a Neighbourhood Plan Steering Group within the Council and that group have been working hard meeting with appropriate experts. Smarden Parish Council have now completed the first phase of adopting a Neighbourhood Plan as we register Smarden as having a 'designated area status'. In the coming weeks we will be consulting with the wider community to include a synopsis of a Neighbourhood Plan for our village.