What has been happening lately on the Neighbourhood Plan front?

About time I got everyone back up to speed on Neighbourhood Plan progress in the Dorset area... so what has happened since my last post?  Looking at the most recent first (and just concentrating on the plans I have been involved with):

Upper Marshwood Vale - big "yay" - passed its referendum on 13 February, 79 voting "yes" (25 "no") on what was a rainy day.  Turnout around 22%, so lower than the Dorset average, but perhaps not surprising given the weather and the very rural (and dispersed) nature of that area.  Big congratulations to all the team.

Bridport area (which I was involved in helping with in the early stages) passed its examination, so will be going to referendum next week.  This is a very good example where a number of Parish Councils have worked together - Allington, Bradpole, Bridport, Bothenhampton & Walditch and Symondsbury.  Certainly shows that joint working is possible, and I wonder if this is the biggest collaborative effort on Neighbourhood Planning yet?

Milton Abbas and Shaftesbury Neighbourhood Plans were both submitted for their examinations in January, and Dorset Council are running the pre-examination consultations as I type.

Motcombe Neighbourhood Plan - was formally 'made' on 10 December following its successful referendum on 7 November.  This was a result of a lot of effort from a small but very determined Parish Council team - and not easy with the planning application pending on Shorts Green Farm (which could not have been allocated in the plan due to the flood risks associated with that site).

Puddletown and Chickerell Neighbourhood Plans - have been through their pre-submission consultation and we are busy analysing all the feedback

And keep an eye out for Wareham, who are about to go through their second pre-submission consultation, having withdrawn their plan (which was at examination) in order to make some changes as they no longer needed to revise the Green Belt boundary and have found enough brownfield sites to meet their identified housing need.

Lots of other activity too - Sutton Poyntz, Portland, Blandford plus news see https://www.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk/planning-buildings-land/planning-policy/neighbourhood-plans-in-dorset.aspx.  And quite a few new areas being designated to start their journeys.  

Final results in for the 2 May in Dorset - and Bere Regis

The new Dorset Council have a slim Conservative majority, with many of the towns being Lib Dem strongholds for this term.  If my maths is right the Conservatives party managed to get just over 39% of all the votes cast, and won 52% of the seats on the new Council.

A very different picture in the other major vote that took place on the 2 May, which was of course the Bere Regis Neighbourhood Plan referendum.  With 447 votes in favour of the Plan (92 votes against) this was a ringing endorsement made by 83% of those voting.  Congratulations to all those involved.

The results are in (well partly)

The Government has today published its response to the consultation on further changes to a number of permitted development rights. 

It continues to support having greater flexibility on the high street, with permitted development rights for shops to offices likely to be introduced (but giving prior approval discretion to halt changes that would hurt the town centre’s vitality).  The possibility of upward extensions to allow housing above shops is still ‘on the cards’ though needs more thought.  A similar, though possibly more luke-warm response, was also given to whether the replacement of commercial buildings with residential development should be introduced (or is this simply being kicked into the long grass?).  The permitted development rights for larger residential extensions is to be continued – but with a fee requirement to help cover local Council’s costs.  The temporary permitted development rights for B8 storage to housing are to end.

Somehow this feels a bit like tracking the local council election results – who’s in, who’s out and which area needs a recount!  At the moment the Dorset results are showing a Conservative majority (with 24 of the 82 seats declared) – but still plenty to speculate about.

Laid-back Dorset

Interesting article in one of the planning magazines earlier this month regarding the differences in enforcement activity across the country. 

Taking a look at the Dorset stats for 2018, North Dorset, Purbeck and Weymouth and Portland all join the ‘laid back’ club (unless there really are no planning contraventions happening out there – which doesn’t appear to be the case from what I have heard), with no enforcement notices and only two planning contravention notices served (both in North Dorset).  West Dorset is also well below average (with 2 enforcement notices and 3 planning contravention notices served).  Only East Dorset (serving 6 enforcement notices and 13 planning contravention notices) was anywhere near “average” for a shire district.  To put this in perspective, across the Dorset Council area, there was 1 enforcement notice served for every 446 planning applications received.

Makes me wonder how many enforcement officers will be deemed necessary in the new Council – how “expedient” are they? 

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-planning-application-statistics#reference-tables

Dorset Council launches

This week has seen the launch of Dorset Council - the new unitary authority replacing the old Dorset County, East Dorset, North Dorset, Purbeck, West Dorset and Weymouth Councils into one smooth and streamlined whole (we hope).

There will no doubt be teething troubles - their website has certainly been difficult to navigate with missing pages and content - but there has obviously been much going on behind the scenes in preparation.  The new planning application validation checklist is now online, plus a handy tick list by application type, which means that the local list of requirements (which for many had been out of date) now has some teeth - at least for the next two years. 

There is no notice of validation timescales - before the changeover this was running at 5 weeks for some of the councils.  Let's hope this doesn't have to get worse before it gets better!  Looking forward to see how the first planning committees operate at the end of May. 

I wonder what they would have made of the 'Headington Shark' - Bill Heine its protagonist RIP 3/4/19.  As the Planning Inspector put it back in 1992, when he considered Oxford City Council's pleas to refuse consent for its retention, "any system of control must make some small place for the dynamic, the unexpected, the downright quirky.  I therefore recommend that the Headington shark be allowed to remain"