Issue - meetings

To agree the Woodmancote Neighbourhood Development Plan to progress to Community Referendum. 

1.      That the Woodmancote Neighbourhood Development Plan, modified according to the recommended modifications set out within Appendix 2, be formally approved to progress to Community Referendum, prescribed by Regulation 18 of the Neighbourhood Planning (General) Regulations 2012, as amended.

2.      That authority be delegated to the Head of Development Services, in consultation with the Lead Member for Built Environment, to make any necessary minor amendments prior to referendum.  

100.1         The report of the Interim Planning Policy Manager, circulated at Pages No. 70-197, provided the Committee with the report of the examination into the Woodmancote Neighbourhood Development Plan; the schedule of the examiner’s recommended modifications; and the submission draft of the Woodmancote Neighbourhood Development Plan. Members were asked to consider the information provided and approve the Plan to progress to a community referendum as prescribed by the Neighbourhood Planning (General) Regulations 2012.

100.2         The Interim Planning Policy Manager explained that Neighbourhood Plans formed an important part of the Development Plan Framework and the local planning authority had a legal duty to support Parish Councils and other qualifying bodies. The examination process was a lighter touch for neighbourhood planning than for the Council’s local plan and usually involved written representations for the public examination.  The Neighbourhood Plan had been submitted to Tewkesbury Borough Council in September 2021 and the public examination had taken place from February to August 2022. The Plan covered landscape, the Green Belt, housing and settlement boundaries; flood risk and drainage; and design. The Inspector had found the Plan to be sound subject to certain modifications and the next step was to send it to public referendum and, with a simple majority voting in favour, it would be ‘made’. The examiner’s key findings were summarised within the report and related to 10 key policies the most significant of which was policy one which covered the Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The examiner had wanted the policy deleted in its entirety; however, the Parish Council still felt there was merit in retaining some kind of policy and One Legal had agreed that, whilst clauses 1B and C should be deleted, 1A could be amended in order to remove any ambiguity and/or policy conflict. It was within the Council’s discretion to retain a policy if it felt it would not prejudice any other parties.

100.3         A Member expressed the view that it was fantastic that Woodmancote had a Neighbourhood Development Plan and that it was lovely to read the history of Woodmancote. The Interim Planning Policy Manager advised that the Plan did include an allocation for residential development. Paragraph 14 of the NPPF related to the Plan setting out to meet housing requirements which this Plan did not do so, in his view, in the case of tilted balance Paragraph 14 would not be relevant.

100.4         Upon being proposed and seconded, it was