Loders Plan through with 83% of the votes

Very pleased to see the results of the 5 May referendum on Loders' neighbourhood plan. 

146 people voted yes to having the plan used to help decide planning applications in the neighbourhood area - this represented 83% of the votes
29 people voted no.

The turnout for the vote was a respectable 40% of the electorate.

Big congratulations to all those volunteers who have worked hard to reflect the community’s wishes and produce their plan. 
The next Full Council meeting is 21 July – which should be when the plan is officially ‘made’.

Loders Neighbourhood Plan - next step Referendum

Loders' Neighbourhood Plan has passed its Examination.  Congratulations to all involved!  The next step will be a local referendum.  As long as enough local residents vote 'yes', the Neighbourhood Plan should then become the second 'made' plan in Dorset.

Claire Wright undertook the examination over the Christmas period, and commended the extent to which the group had reached out to its community and was an inherently community-driven document, and the fact that the plan was clear, concise (at just under 30 pages) and easy to understand.  She has suggested some very minor modifications, none of which fundamentally change the Plan's contents or direction.  The District Council will formally consider her report in March.

It is likely that the referendum will be held on 5 May, to combine with the Police and Crime Commissioner elections on that date. 

Loders Neighbourhood Plan on track for examination

Loders Parish Council submitted its Neighbourhood Plan and supporting evidence for examination, and has now received confirmation from West Dorset District Council that they will be appointing an independent examiner, and gearing up for the examination. 

It will be interesting to hear whether the examiner will require a hearing (as was the case with Cerne Valley) or whether they deal with the examination entirely based on the evidence and written representations. 

Watch this space!

Maps - planners can't live without them

Planning is very hard to do without maps, and ideally GIS (geographic information systems) that allow you to add, remove and annotate different layers over map or aerial photograph base.  So I’m pleased to say that I am working in partnership with Getmapping plc who supply a GIS system for Parish Councils called Parish Online.  This uses a normal web browser, and is therefore accessible, simple but effective.  Any person in the neighbourhood plan groups I am supporting (whose Parish Council have signed up to Parish Online) can access not only a full range of Ordnance Survey mapping and aerial photography, but also the various layers provided by organisations like Natural England, English Heritage and the Environment Agency, including flooding, Listed Building, nature conservation sites and more.  And of course, then add their own layers - new sites, key views, local green spaces and much more.

First use of this software was for the Loders Neighbourhood Plan near Bridport in Dorset – you can see examples of maps at the end of the document and an aerial overlay on page 19.  I should have some more examples published shortly which I will link to in due course.

Contact me if you are interested in trialling this software, or need some help with mapping for your project.

Loders Parish to put a development boundary back, in their neighbourhood plan

Loders Parish Council have just started their consultation on their draft Neighbourhood Plan - the second in West Dorset to reach this stage.

Check out their website http://www.lodersparish.org/neighbourhoodplan.html with the draft plan and supporting documents.

Having had their development boundary removed in the previous 2006 Local Plan they are proposing to reinstate it (with some minor changes) around their village - adding supporting policies to protect those areas and features that of particular local importance.

It has been a real pleasure working with the neighbourhood plan group over the past few months to help them reach this milestone.

This is a view across their beautiful rural parish, just outside Bridport in Dorset.