The next meeting of the Parish Council will be held on Monday 10th January at 7.30pm in the Village Hall.
Thanks to Gerald Boseley
The Parish Council is very concerned about the deteriorating situation at Neigh Bridge, especially when the weather is good. There is very little that we can directly do about it. However, what we can do is keep a log of all the difficulties we encounter and use it to lobby the relevant powers to act. You can download a form below, we would encourage you to use it when you encounter difficulties at Neigh Bridge and then send it to the Parish Clerk who will keep a record.
The Parish Council recently heard of the Cotswold Lakes Trust’s plans to be more of a presence at Neigh Bridge Country Park this summer. Here are the slides describing these plans. Click on the link to view the pdf
THE FINAL STEP
The journey to formal approval for the Somerford Keynes and Shorncote Neighbourhood Development Plan (NDP) is almost complete. The final step is for the community to vote in the upcoming referendum. So it’s time to update you on how we finally got to this point and what you need to do.
The NDP is the only way in which local community views can directly inform new planning policies. Is that important? It would certainly appear so, because the NDP is playing an important part in a planning application on which local opinion is being expressed very strongly.
THE STORY SO FAR
The last NDP News reported that the NDP had been submitted to Cotswold District Council, our local planning authority, whose endorsement is needed for it to progress. A further public consultation followed and the NDP was sent to an Independent Examiner for comment. This consultation period ended on 24 January 2020 and that’s the last you may have heard of the NDP.
Dear all,
During this last year we have enjoyed the book exchange that was set up in the church porch. This has been used and enjoyed by many people during the pandemic, which is fantastic. Now, with the approach of Easter ,we would like to clear the porch and have space for the Easter garden to be laid out by the children.
If anyone would like to take any of the books from the porch please do go ahead. We plan to leave everything in place until March 15th and then clear everything away to set up the Easter Garden.
David Crofts and Sussanne Lock
Church wardens
All of the Cotswold Water Park has been given Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) status but what does this mean for residents?
Whenever possible, documents are published as pdfs, which means you can easily print them and bring them to a meeting, should you wish.
Please note these are draft minutes which may be corrected at a Council meeting. The copies here will usually remain uncorrected. Draft copies are also displayed each month on the noticeboard by the phonebox, usually within two weeks of a meeting. The legal copy is signed by the chairman of a meeting. All meetings are open to the public.
If you do not already receive Agendas, Minutes and occasional other alerts from the Parish clerk, and would like to do so, please send your email address to the Clerk at [email protected]
Under new Data Laws from May 2018, organisations cannot contact you by email unless you have given specific permission. If you ignore such requests, your email box may empty! If you wish to stop receiving this material, if you move or die for example, please send a note to the Clerk. Click Data Protection (left) for the Council’s Policy, agreed in July 2019
The plan has been accepted by CDC and a final statutory consultation was open from 4 December 2019 until 24 January 2020, and has now been examined by an Inspector appointed by CDC. The latest information is on the CDC site hereThe plan documents are available on this site and on the CDC site The Statutory Notice is here
Earlier Public Consultations were held in the Village Hall on Thursday 28 March 2019 7.30-9.00, Friday 29th March 2019 7.30-9.30, Saturday 30th March 2019 10-2pm
The Consultation is now closed
The statutory NDP pre-submission consultation period ended on Friday 29 July 2016. We are grateful to all those who completed the questionnaire and/or responded via email. All comments will now be considered by the NDP Team who will determine what amendments should be made to the Draft Plan, which must then be submitted to a full meeting of the Parish Council. Once approved the Plan will be forwarded to CDC as the planning authority, who then assume responsibility for the next stages
See the link to the CDC website below for the latest on this plan.
Public Consultations were held in the Village Hall on Thursday 28 March 2019 7.30-9.00Friday 29th March 2019 7.30-9.30Saturday 30th March 2019 10-2pm The consultation is now closed. Read on for how we started…Our Vision “ To maintain and enhance a vibrant community which is an attractive location to live, work and visit” The Neighbourhood Planning Group has been set up by Somerford Keynes Parish Council to produce a Neighbourhood Plan to guide future development within the parish. The area of the parish has been formally designated a Neighbourhood Area, for which a Neighbourhood Plan can be developed containing locally-driven and legally enforceable planning policies designed specifically for us. Below you will find information about the Neighbourhood Plan.
Below we give the legal nitty-gritty to the National and District Planning scene. Other pages can be accessed with the links to the left, or you can follow on page by page with the links at the bottom. Steering group membership and contact details are pop-ups from the links at left. The pop-ups will close if you click on them
What is a Neighbourhood Plan?
A Neighbourhood Development Plan (or “Neighbourhood Plan”) is a framework for guiding the future development, regeneration and conservation of an area. It typically deals with social, economic and environmental issues, such as planning, employment, heritage and transport.
Who produces the Neighbourhood Plan?
The Neighbourhood Plan will be produced by Somerford Keynes Parish Council (as the “qualifying body”), in consultation with residents, local groups, local businesses and landowners. This will help to ensure that the Neighbourhood Plan is a community-led activity and that it includes a wide range of interests. Is it compulsory to produce a Neighbourhood Plan? No. Every town or parish has the right to produce a Neighbourhood Plan but it is recognised that not all areas will want to. What is the benefit of having a Neighbourhood Plan? Having a Neighbourhood Plan will enable Somerford Keynes to have greater influence over its future. Crucially, unlike the Parish Plan, the Neighbourhood Plan must be consulted by the CDC while determining planning applications.
How long does it take to produce a Neighbourhood Plan?
It is up to individual areas to decide on the pace at which they wish to progress their plans. It is known that on average the process is likely to take around two years. However we have only recently adopted our Parish Plan, much of the work is done and we hope to have our referendum at the same time as the Parish Council, District Council and General Election on 5th May 2015. [CDC now says it cannot cope with yet another vote on this day, so a date will be set a few months later, to coincide with one or two other parishes]
Does the Neighbourhood Plan have to conform to the Cotswold District Local Plan?
One of the basic conditions that all Neighbourhood Plans need satisfy is that they are in “general” conformity with the strategic policies of the adopted local development plan for the area. The Cotswold Local Plan is still in development and can be viewed on the CDC website The plan must also conform to the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) – see below.
Can Neighbourhood Plans be used to stop development rather than promote it?
No. Neighbourhood Planning is about shaping the development of a local area in a positive way. It is not a way in which to prevent local development from happening. It must reflect local and national policies and our Plan must not, therefore, promote less development than required by the Cotswold District Local Plan. The number of houses by which Somerford Keynes must grow will be given to us by CDC. This is likely to be zero; the Neighbourhood Plan will, however, enable us to specify where any development could take place.
What is the important evidence in the Neighbourhood Plan?
Unfortunately there is no check-list specifying what should appear in a Neighbourhood Plan. The contents will come from various sources such as existing reports, local interest groups, businesses and developers.
Who will pay for neighbourhood planning?
Government funding is available for the creation of NDPs. The Parish Council has been successful in securing £4875 for the creation of the plan and to ensure that it conforms to all the necessary standards.
When will the community be consulted?
Somerford Keynes Parish Council commits to early engagement to ensure that key issues are identified to inform the Neighbourhood Plan. Initial dates have been set in July. See Public Consultation page for latest information. Once a draft Plan has been produced, it will be subject to further consultation
How can I get involved or find out more information?
Most information should be reasonably up to date on these pages, with meeting notes on the Documents page and other information in Parish Council Minutes. The next public consultation is listed on the Consultation page, where you will find feedback from previous consultations. You can send your ideas to the steering group at any time, or talk to steering group members.
The new National Planning Policy Framework 2012 introduced Neighbourhood Plans, whereby communities can now set out local planning policies for their area which will take precedence over non-strategic policies in the Local Plan set out by the local Planning Authority.Currently planning decisions are taken by the District Council based on policies set out in their Local Plan for the whole District. The Parish Council is consulted, but its opinion currently has little weight.For our Neighbourhood Area this means that, once our Neighbourhood Plan is formally adopted, planning decisions made by Cotswold District Council (CDC) affecting development within the Neighbourhood Area will have to be made on the basis of the policies we put in our Neighbourhood Plan. The only exceptions to this are where policies in the Neighbourhood Plan conflict with strategic policies in the Local Plan (roughly those which affect the whole district so a change here would have knock-on effects elsewhere) or where they conflict with statutory national policies. A key consequence of this is that policies within the Neighbourhood Plan could not stop or artificially restrict development. National policies have imposed development quotas on all Planning Authorities – so Cotswold District has an allocation of houses that it has to deliver. It currently has identified 17 settlements where development should take place. Any development in villages such as ours, without shops or schools is not expected, and would be termed “windfall” development.What we can do is have policies to define what and where those new developments should be and how they should be integrated into and contribute to the future of our Parish.More information and download a copy of the NPPF on the government website here.
The copy below has been revised following meetings with CDC. The final document was agreed at the Parish Council meeting on 4 February 2019. Please note that all comments to public bodies may appear in the public domain.(Minor corrections to improve headings 3 March)
A number of additional supporting documents are now available (September 2019) as below:-