Wootton Wawen Neighbourhood Development Plan Consultation Statement Contents 1. Introduction 2. Background 3. Pre Plan Consultation 4. Consultations on the Neighbourhood Development Plan 5. Pre-submission consultation document Appendices Appendix 1: Details of Consultees and how consulted Appendix 2: Summary of issues raised by respondents to the Consultation Draft and how they were addressed Wootton Wawen Parish Boundary/Neighbourhood Plan Area 1.0 Introduction This Consultation Statement has been compiled to fulfil the legal obligations of the Neighbourhood Planning Regulations 2012 [Section 15(2) of Part 5] which state that it should contain the following:- (a) details of the persons or bodies who were consulted about the proposed neighbourhood development plan; (b) explanation of how they were consulted; (c) details and summary of the main issues and concerns raised by the persons consulted on the draft plan; (d) description of how these issues and concerns have been considered and, where relevant, addressed in the proposed Neighbourhood Development Plan. The Appendices contain full details of all individuals and bodies consulted, how the process was carried out and over what period. Additionally, there is a summary of the issues raised in response to the targeted consultation following the publication of the pre-submission document. All detailed Appendix material is available at www.wwnp.co.uk 2.0 Background The proposal to initiate the production of a community led Neighbourhood Development Plan was formally agreed at a Parish Council Meeting on 25 November 2013 and Stratford-on-Avon District Council (SDC) was duly notified. The decision was a natural extension of the work contained in the Parish Appraisal of 2001 and the Parish Plan of 2010. The Parish Council requested the designation of the appropriate Neighbourhood Area (as per S.61 of the Town and Country Act 1990 - Neighbourhood Plan General Regulations 2012) in a letter to SDC dated 14 January 2014. After the statutory consultation period, which concluded on 21 March 2014, the Wootton Wawen Neighbourhood Plan Area Designation was formally confirmed at a SDC Cabinet Meeting on 16 June 2014. A Steering Group was then formed to start work on the production of the Plan. Help and tuition were provided along the way by a Consultant from ‘Planning Aid’ to ensure proper adherence to Government guidelines. The Parish Council and residents were kept informed of progress at regular intervals – both directly at PC meetings and via the Village Magazine (published monthly). A key factor for the Group to consider was the housing target specified in the SDC Draft Core Strategy. Wootton Wawen was described in this draft as a ‘Category 2 Local Service Village’ with a target during the life of the Plan to build 51-75 new houses. Concurrently, SDC initiated a call for interested landowners to submit sites for potential housing development. Naturally, a significant proportion of the Group’s time was initially spent in evaluating the suitability of potential sites for development – working within significant constraints such as the Green Belt. The Draft Core Strategy was examined publicly by an Inspector in January 2015, resulting in an almost immediate change in the allocation of new housing to villages such as ours ‘washed over’ by the Green Belt. As a result, the housing target was removed and potential development restricted to in-fill within the agreed built-up boundary or on suitable adjacent exception sites (e.g. Limited Affordable Housing to meet defined local needs or, possibly, a suitable ‘brownfield’ site). This change had an obvious and significant impact on the work of the Group, with the assessment of individual sites put on hold. The key milestones in the overall process were: • Survey of residents, distribution of pro-forma for comments and analysis of responses. (June - September 2014) • Public Meeting to explain the NDP process, parameters, objectives and initial survey results held on 12 November 2014 • Open Days for residents to comment on potential housing development sites, a proposed Affordable Housing scheme and to further explore the overall Plan Objectives (24 & 27 January 2015 ) • Survey of businesses and analysis of responses: February 2015 • Core strategy proposed revision of housing targets/allocations for Local Service Villages. (February - March 2015) • Completion of Draft Plan: October/November 2015 , initiation of pre-submission consultation using a ‘flyer’ distributed to all households (15 -20 November) and Press Advert (16 November) Start of official six week pre-submission consultation period: 23 November 2015 • Collation and analysis of responses to pre-consultation: 4 January 2016 onwards 3.0 Pre-plan Consultation Once the decision had been made by the Parish Council in November 2013 to start work on a Neighbourhood Development Plan, residents were informed via the Village Magazine and volunteers sought for a proposed Steering Group. The Parish Council agreed that this Group should be composed of 3 Parish Councillors and 3 residents, with a Parish Councillor - Peter Emberson, as Chairman. The magazine has been used throughout the Consultation Process as the main means of briefing residents as to progress, together with posters on the three village notice boards to advertise meetings/Open Days. 4.0 Summary of Consultations on the Neighbourhood Development Plan The general approach to the community-wide consultation process, and the main stages in the process, were: • A ’Housing Needs’ Survey conducted by Warwickshire Rural Housing Association (which took place in 2010/11 before the Neighbourhood Development Plan was initiated) and ‘Open Days’ for residents to consider/vote on preferred site options. • A Residents Survey – every identified home in the designated area received a hand-delivered copy of a pro-forma survey (Appendix 1.1) with a request to complete it within 5-6 weeks. The completed survey forms were again hand collected to ensure a high response level (during July-August 2014). The response analysis was carried out by the IT Department of SDC. Each • comment was individually recorded and subsequently used to produce an overview report. (Appendix 1.2) • A Public Meeting held in the Village Hall to explain the NDP process, the next steps and suggested priorities following initial Survey results (Appendix 1.3) • The Survey Analysis/Overview Report - distributed to residents in an 8 page booklet (Appendix 1.4) along with an invitation to attend one of two ‘Open Days’ planned for January 2015. • ‘Open Days’, held in two different venues to help attract the maximum number of residents, including an independent analysis by a Planning Consultant of five sites for potential housing development, together with one for ‘Affordable Homes. Warwickshire Rural Housing Association representatives were in attendance to provide full details of the latter scheme. (Appendix 1.5) • A survey of all identified local businesses to ascertain views on selected issues (Appendix 1.6) • A Character Assessment’ of the village by three resident groups to identify the main architectural and landscape features of each selected area, including important views into/out of the village. • Regular reporting back to the Parish Council monthly meetings and to the community via magazine articles. Minutes/Action points from the Steering group were used as part of the briefing process and to ensure follow-up by participating individuals (Appendix 1.7) • Publication of the Pre-Submission Plan on a dedicated website (www.wwnp.co.uk ), followed by a 6 week consultation period (Appendix 1.8) 5.0 Pre-submission Consultation Document The Wootton Wawen Neighbourhood Development Plan Draft Consultation Document was published on 13th November 2015 and made available for comment on a special Parish Council website (www.wwpc.co.uk). Residents were advised via the Village Magazine that printed copies were also available at the Parish Council Office. Appendix 2.1 contains details of the persons or bodies consulted, how they were consulted and consultation dates. Summaries of the issues or concerns of respondents to the Consultation Draft and how they were addressed are in Appendix 2.2. All appendix material is available at www.wwpc.co.uk The Local Planning Authority (LPA), Stratford District Council (SDC), has provided informal officer comments. Wootton Wawen Parish Council has been in continuous dialogue with the LPA during the preparation of the WWNDP. SDC has raised no objections to the WWNDP but has made a number of suggestions on how the final document may be improved. These have been incorporated into the final Submission document. (See Appendix 2.3). In summary, the purpose of the entire consultation process was to ensure maximum involvement with the community and their responses have been used to inform and shape the Plan throughout the process. All feedback has been given full consideration by the Neighbourhood Plan Group and, wherever possible, relevant and appropriate changes have been made to the Plan prior to submission to the SDC. APPENDIX 1: DETAILS OF CONSULTEES AND HOW CONSULTED 1.1. RESIDENTS SURVEY: JULY – AUGUST 2014 1.1.1. Survey Form as circulated to all residents by hand WOOTTON WAWEN NEIGHBOURHOOD PLAN 2014 We aim to keep Wootton Wawen a great place to live. From the responses to questions posed in both the 2001 Parish Appraisal and the 2010 Parish Plan it was obvious that the majority of residents wished that the village could remain unchanged – typically “We like it as it is!” However, change is an on-going process that is influenced by demands from several quarters – many that we cannot ignore. In particular, Stratford District Council must meet a stipulated need for more houses and a target of 10,800 new homes for the District over the period 2011 to 2031 has been provisionally agreed. Local Service Villages, of which we are one, must take their share of new housing stock. For Wootton Wawen the target is approximately 75 houses over this period.