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Neighbourhood plan update – May 2022

During April the Steering group made a number of comments on the draft Housing Needs Analysis and the Design Code reports written by AECOM. Both reports had some very good data and captured the essence of the village and what will be acceptable to most within the Parish and are now waiting for the final reports to come back early in May.


The Steering group has had a request to include some items of the Whissendine Neighbourhood plan, to which we will provide the community survey, the reports and results of the postcard competition on “Whissendine in 2035”.


Once we have all the final reports we will endeavour to start to compile the draft plan over the coming months, with some guidance from Hannah the Planner our housing plan consultant from Urban Vision.

Whissendine Neighbourhood Plan – REFERENDUM 29th Feb 2024

Happy new year to all Whissendine residents from Whissendine Neighbourhood Plan Steering group.

Following consultation and comments made with residents the Whissendine Neighbourhood Plan(WNP) was finally submitted to Rutland County Council (RCC). Further communication took place and the Steering group submitted several documents including: a Basic Condition statement, A Consultation statements, supporting documents and included all submissions from statutory agencies and residents.

The Steering group with permission from the Parish council agreed with RCC the Appointment of an External Examiner. We ensured that, not only was the Examiner suitably qualified, but also he had experience of examining rural Neighbourhood plans and in particularly Parishes in Rutland. The examiner that we jointly appointed has examined several other local parishes including a few in Rutland. Over the last few months we have agreed some minor rewording of some of the WNP, but not on the intent or scope of those policies.

In the final report from the External Examiner commented that the WNP had many good and robust policies and finally recommended that the plan go to Referendum.  RCC is required to publish information about the neighbourhood plan and minor changes 28 working days before the date of the referendum. This will not be a consultation phase, it just highlights the small changes.

The referendum on Thursday 29th February 2024 should ask only only question:

 “Do you want Rutland County Council to use the neighbourhood plan for Whissendine to help it decide planning applications in the neighbourhood area”? or something similar.

If more than 50% of residents voting in the referendum vote ‘YES’, then the neighbourhood plan becomes part of the statutory development plan for the area.  

If successful at referendum, a neighbourhood plan comes into force as part of the development plan for the area alongside the local plan. Local planning authorities and planning inspectors considering planning applications or appeals must make their decisions in accordance with the policies of the development plan, unless material considerations indicate otherwise. 

In short the Whissendine Neighbourhood Plan will direct Council planners and give legal weight to the numbers and type of houses built in Whissendine over the next 15 years. 

If residents decide not to vote Yes, the Parish is likely to see more speculative planning applications, and will require another plan to be written wasting 2-3 years in which time more applications could come into the village.

Some residents will undoubtedly not be happy with the WNP or will say it does not go far enough that is their choice. As a Steering group we would urge you to vote YES at the referendum on 29 February 2024.

Lastly it is recommended that the Neighbourhood Plans should be reviewed every 5 years, draft minor amendments, but not re-written.

Whissendine Neighbourhood Plan Steering Group.

https://whissendine-neighbourhood-plan.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Whissendine-NP-Final-Submission-28-Dec-2023.pdf

Latest News

Updated August 2022

Whissendine Neighbourhood Plan Steering group – August 22 News update 

The first draft of the Neighbourhood plan and is almost ready to submit to RCC for comment and discussion before a final version is submitted for consideration and discussion to finalise. The draft neighbourhood plan will be an agenda item to be discussed with the Parish council in early September, prior to submission. This will be followed the Regulation 14 – 6 week consultation period and that  could then give the Parish some legal weight should any other speculative development proposals be submitted to RCC. Few of the utility and infrastructure organisations responded to our requests to find out their plans for Whissendine over the next 15-20 years, with the exception except for Severn Trent’s initial response confirming …no interests in Whissendine, and assets transferred to Anglian Water. 

March 2022

During this month the steering group has received a draft copy of the Housing Needs Analysis (HNA) from AECOM which is an evidence based report on the potential housing need for Whissendine. The Neighbourhood steering group has started to review and comment before the report is included in the final neighbourhood plan.

It is anticipated that the draft Design codes report will be received from the Giuseppe Verdone, Principal Urban Designer, Urban Advisory at AECOM.

February 2022

The comprehensive Whissendine Parish Community Survey was completed at the end of November 2021. From the returned hard copies and the online responses we had just over 22% of the parish responses, although in Market research terms this is seen as a good responses, 78% chose not to take part, for what ever reasons. The results are in and have been analysed. The answers show that there are varied views and opinions that will not a be a surprise to most of the village, but it does provide much needed evidence for the Whissendine Neighbourhood Plan, especially with the withdrawal of the Rutland Local plan and the collapse of the proposed market village on St Georges Barracks sight, which will possible involve some speculative developments across the county, including Whissendine.

Rutland county Council have recently called for land to be put forward for possible development, it is expected that the same sites will be put forward, even though some are unsuitable.

In the January 2022 Whissendine Steering group recently voted and recommended to the parish council that the Planned Limit of Development (PLD) remains the same as the previous Local Plan. The PLD if adopted by the parish and RCC will still allow for small pockets of development.

Kerry Parr from AECOM has been given you a rough idea of the type and mix of housing required to start the Housing Needs Analysis that will form a major part of the Neighbourhood plan and should be completed by the end of March 2022.

Our consultants from Urban Vision are moving on with the policy documents that will be included in the Plan, they are:

Housing, Heritage, Whissendine windmill, Design, Community facilities, Employment, Transport and Surface water.

Lastly we have a visit by Giuseppe Verdone in mid February, who is the Principal Urban Designer, for AECOM who will assist in preparing the design codes for the Neighbour Plan

Next meeting of the Whissendine Neighbourhood Plan Steering committee takes place on Tuesday 22nd February 2022 starting at 19:00 hrs at the village hall.

September 2021

Listen to Hannah the Planner explain what a Neighbourhood plan is and the advantages of have a plan for Whissendine. and secondly what are the opportunities and risks of not having a Neighbourhood plan now that Rutland County council have withdrawn their Local plan on the link below.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Qs6o9gGEWaaEdEFOCCAVsL7J-bTdWPhR/view?usp=drive_web

  • Wed 6th October 21 between 5.30-7.30pm members of the Steering group will be in the White Lion for a Planning and a Pint/Drink. Share your views with the Steering Group and receive a Pint or Drink (Age appropriate of course!)
  • Tuesday 12th Oct at 5.30-7.30pm for Planning and a pint/drink @ the White Lion. Put it in your diary’s !
  • Public Meeting in the village Hall – “What’s it all about?” – All you need to know about the Neighbourhood Plan with Hannah the Planner; Coming soon October 2021
  • Walk it and Talk it – Village tour visiting green spaces and important local amenities.
  • Coming soon -Comprehensive village household survey in November 2021