Neighbourhood Plan Survey

SMARDEN NEIGHBOURHOOD PLAN

Community information note 01 & Initiation Survey Release date: January 2020. Questionnaires need to be recieved by Sturday 22nd February

Your Parish Council is considering preparing a Neighbourhood Plan for Smarden Parish.

Recently Smarden Parish Council successfully registered Smarden Parish as a designated Neighbourhood Area. This means the Parish Council is now able to make preparations to create a Neighbourhood Plan which would cover the whole area of the Parish.

The plan making process would require us to run several consultations on the proposals which would allow you to respond to the draft plan as it is prepared. We recognise that it is important that you have a say as early as possible and are involved from the outset which is why we sent you the survey.

Please complete the survey – it’s your chance to have a say now.

The survey asks you some initial questions that we believe are relevant and could be important to you. You can add additional information on a further sheet if you wish. Your responses will help us understand and reflect the needs and preferences you have as a member of our local community. The survey is anonymous and the more responses we get, the better as it helps us understand the wishes of parishioners as a community.

What is involved in making a Neighbourhood Plan?

The process allows local people to have a say in what happens in their immediate locality in the future. The legislative framework gives more powers and control over how planning decisions are made in the Neighbourhood Area and provides opportunity to directly influence and control what development happens in the future.

Plan making takes time, costs money to do, and involves you and many other stakeholders and consultees. This includes landowners, local community members, infrastructure and utilities providers and the Borough and County Councils. Specialist technical advice is often needed too. The requirements we will need to meet can be complex, and the plan will need to satisfy certain tests and basic conditions.

The final stages include a local referendum seeking the majority approval of the local community, and an independent examination of the plan. The Examiner is appointed jointly by the Parish Council and Ashford Borough Council. Once, and if, this is completed, the plan is officially put into place.

Status of a Plan – Understanding what you end up with

Neighbourhood plans are important and can be powerful tools for local people. Once fully made, a Neighbourhood Plan has firm legal status in planning law and sits alongside the Borough Local Plan in its status and becomes part of the Borough Development Plan. It serves to provide the framework of much more local and neighbourhood specific policies for development in the Parish itself and will be used when making decisions on planning applications. It must be complementary to the prevailing Local Plan.