This document sets out important information to provide our community with more detail about the Neighbourhood Planning process General MA&CNP31 Information MA&CNP31 General Information What is Neighbourhood Planning? 1/2 • Planning policy facilitates housing, employment and infrastructure in the right places at the right time. It aims to protect the natural environment and provide a framework for decision making relating to development. • The Localism Act, which received Royal Assent on November 15 2011, introduced new rights and powers to allow local communities to shape new development by coming together to prepare neighbourhood plans. • Neighbourhood planning can be taken forward by two types of body - town and parish councils or 'neighbourhood forums’. Neighbourhood planning applies to England only. • Neighbourhood forums and parish councils can use new neighbourhood planning powers to establish general planning policies for the development and use of land in a neighbourhood. These are described legally as 'neighbourhood development plans.’ • Local councils will continue to produce development plans that will set the strategic context within which neighbourhood development plans will sit (i.e. Local Plans). • Neighbourhood development plans or orders do not take effect unless there is a majority of support in a referendum of the neighbourhood (a majority of at least 50%). MA&CNP31 General Information What is Neighbourhood Planning? 2/2 • Neighbourhood development plans or orders also have to meet a number of conditions before they can be put to a community referendum and legally come into force. These conditions are to ensure plans are legally compliant and take account of wider policy considerations (e.g. national policy). • The Basic Conditions are: • They must have regard to national planning policy • They must be in general conformity with strategic policies in the development plan for the local area (i.e. such as in a core strategy) • They must be compatible with EU obligations and human rights requirements. • An independent qualified person (The Examiner) then checks that a neighbourhood development plan or order meets the conditions before it can be voted on in a local referendum. This is to make sure that referendums only take place when proposals are workable and of a decent quality. • Proposed neighbourhood development plans or orders need to gain the approval of a majority of voters of the neighbourhood to come into force. If proposals pass the referendum, the local planning authority is under a legal duty to bring them into force. Information retrieved from: https://www.planningportal.co.uk/info/200130/common_projects/42/neighBourhood_planning MA&CNP31 General Information What are the benefits of a Neighbourhood Plan? A Neighbourhood Plan can be used to: The benefits are: • Develop a shared vision for the • They can set the ground rules for neighbourhood. development in the area (via planning • Choose where new homes, shops, offices policies). and other development should be built. • Provide more detailed policies than • Identify and protect important local might exist in the Local Plan green spaces. • Conserve heritage and local character • Influence what new buildings should • Emphase a community-led approach to look like planning and placemaking • Direct funds to support local A Neighbourhood Plan cannot: infrastructure through the Community • Conflict with the strategic policies in the infrastructure levy (CIL): 25% of Local Plan prepared by the local planning development gain allocated to authority. communities with a Neighbourhood Plan • Be used to prevent development that is where a CIL Charging schedule is in place included in the Local Plan. (dependent on the Local Authority). • Be prepared by a body other than parish or town council or a neighbourhood forum MA&CNP31 General Information The Neighbourhood Plan process There are a number of important processes to follow to ensure a robust Neighbourhood Plan that is both in ‘general conformity’ to existing county and national policy and responds to the needs and interests of the community and other stakeholders: As of June 2019, we are here: Source: https://www.braughing.org.uk/neighbourhood- plan/about-the-plan MA&CNP31 General Information Who is on the Melbury Abbas and Cann 2031 (MA&CNP31) Steering Group? • William Keneley, Chair, Melbury Abbas and Cann Group Parish Council; resident, Cann Common • Hannah Jefferson, local resident, Melbury Abbas • Catherine Elliot-Hunt, local resident, Cann • Rosemary Hunt, local resident, Cann • Bill Walsh, local resident, Cann • Robert Crichton, local resident, Cann • David Webber, Parish Councillor, Guys Marsh MA&CNP31 is supported by Amy Burnett, - (DinT). MA&CNP31 General Information MA&CNP31 TIMELINE (anticipated) 2014 - June ‘17 Nov ‘17 Jan-FeB ‘18 Mar ‘18 June ‘18 MA&C designated as Analysis of Joint MA&C + Community Formation of local a neighbourhood community ShaftesBury NP questionnaire steering group area by NDDC questionnaire Community Gathering evidence Draft objectives and Community Draft Neighbourhood consultation on Draft base policies Feedback Day Plan plan (Reg 14) Ongoing ‘18 Winter ‘18 Early ‘19 Summer 2019 Autumn 2019 Plan submitted to Revised plan based Consultation on Local Planning on consultation Submission Version Examination Referendum Authority responses (Reg 16) (Submission Version) Autumn 2019 Winter 2019 Early 2020 Early 2020 Mid-2020 MA&CNP31 General Information How is MA&CNP31 funded? • Locality is an organisation supported by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, MHCLG (previously the Department for Communities and Local Government, DCLG). • Since 2015, Locality has supported over 2,300 local groups to develop a neighbourhood plan or Neighbourhood Development Order. • Locality will continue to deliver the Neighbourhood Planning Support Programme over the next four years, from 2018-2022. • The programme will provide anyone working on a neighbourhood plan with support from the Locality team, AECOM and other partners/specialists through: • a basic grant of up to £9,000 • additional grants for eligible groups with an extra £8,000 (e.g. if allocate sites and include a Design Code) • technical support through expert partners AECOM and other specialists • It is anticipated that the Neighbourhood Plan will be fully covered through the Locality Grant and Technical Support programme. There is a small Parish Council fund for administration and materials not covered by the Locality grant programme. MA&CNP31 General Information NDDC is now part of Dorset Council – and? 1/2 On 1 April 2019 the county's nine councils were replaced by two new organisations, Dorset Council and Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council. North Dorset District Council (NDDC) is now part of Dorset Council. The Local Plan was created before reorganisation and still applies to the former council area until the new council adopts its new plan. North Dorset District Council was embarking on producing a new Local Plan for the District, which would replace both the North Dorset District-Wide Local Plan (1st Revision) (adopted in January 2003) and the North Dorset Local Plan Part 1 (adopted in January 2016). As part of this process NDDC consulted on an Issues and Options Document from the 27 November 2017 to 22 January 2018. This information is not yet publicly available but it included important relevant local issues such as conditions for affordable housing (rural exception sites) and whether land earmarked for the proposed Shaftesbury East bypass should still be allocated. See: https://www.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk/planning-buildings-land/planning-policy/north-dorset/local-plan-review/local-plan-review.aspx MA&CNP31 General Information NDDC is now part of Dorset Council – and? 2/2 A Consequential Order for Dorset Council requires the Council to produce and adopt a local plan by April 2024. This will be funded from existing budgets from the former district councils’ work to prepare local plan reviews. In order to have control over development, councils need to have three things: • an adopted local plan (which must be reviewed every 5 years) • a five year supply of deliverable housing sites • and sufficient recent housing delivery to meet the new Housing Delivery Test. As of April 2019 All of the former districts in Dorset are currently in the process of reviewing their local plans. Much of this work can be carried forward into the new Dorset Council Local Plan. It is anticipated many extant planning officers will be involved in this work to expedite progress towards a unitary local plan. MA&CNP31 General Information What is a settlement boundary? Settlement boundaries are a well-utilised planning tool for guiding, controlling and identifying limits to development for an individual village. These Boundaries indicate the areas where new development will generally Be permitted, suBject to satisfying other policies in a Plan. • The 2016 NDDC Local Plan removed the 2003 settlement boundary for Cann Common (see Core Policy 2, Spatial Strategy and Policies 16-20). Settlement boundaries are around the four main towns (Blandford, Gillingham, ShaftesBury, StalBridge, Sturminster Newton and 18 larger villages. There is no settlemeBr boundary currently in MelBury AbBas and Cann parish. Larger villages are: Bourton, Charlton Marshall, Child Okeford, East Stour, Fontmell Magna, Hazelbury Bryan, Iwerne Minster, Marnhull, Milborne St Andrew, Milton Abbas, Motcombe,Okeford Fitzpaine, Pimperne, Shillingstone, Stourpaine,