If you live in Beare Green please read this and take ACTION NOW.
Capel Parish Council have submitted a application to develop a Neighbourhood Development Plan.
So what is it a Neighbourhood Development plan actually is!
Perhaps the best way to answer that question is to quote from the guidance that has been supplied to by Capel Parish Council:
A Neighbourhood Plan is a community-led framework for guiding the future development, regeneration and conservation of an area. A neighbourhood plan is about the use and development and may contain a vision, aims, planning policies, proposals for improving the area or providing new facilities, or allocation of key sites for specific kinds of development. It may deal with a wide range of social, economic and environmental issues (such as housing, employment, heritage and transport) or it may focus on one or two issues only. These may be issues that are relevant to the whole neighbourhood or just to part of the neighbourhood. This is for those producing the plan to decide.
To reinforce the point that a NDP is NOT about new development being foist upon a community, the guidance goes on to say:
A robust programme of community engagement and proportionate evidence base should help to make sure that a neighbourhood plan is based on a proper understanding of the local area and of the views, aspirations, wants and needs of local people.
Clearly a positive opportunity is being given for the community to help shape its destiny, rather than to merely react to the proposals of others. The wide remit of a NDP is further confirmed , as follows:
The plan could also guide the provision of infrastructure, for example, setting out priorities for new development such as improving pedestrian links, upgrading paths and open space. This would inform subsequent negotiations between local authorities and developers.
Hopefully, the relevance of this statement to Beare Green is obvious.
Those producing Neighbourhood Plans will need to speak to a range of organisations, departments and local partners. This will establish a range of dialogues which would otherwise probably not take place, potentially influencing the activities of the various organisations involved. [My emphasis added]
The plan could include things like improvement of streets and public spaces or where community facilities should be located. This would provide the context for negotiations with local authority departments (eg highways) and could help to influence their future works or development.
The first public meeting to be held in Beare Green will be on either 21 or 28 July, at 19-30hrs, although this is subject to confirmation. Other meetings will be held in Capel on 8 July and in Coldharbour on 15 July, again at 19-30hrs.
Everyone affected should have received a letter, dated 1 June 2105, from the Planning Department of Mole Valley District Council on this point, seeking your views.
This is not an easy matter to resolve.
Whilst there are considerable benefits from having a Neighbourhood Development Plan [NDP] organised by a Parish Council, it does not follow that the resulting plan should end up as 'one size fits all'. Indeed KBGG would like to think that it is common ground that any NDP should reflect the individual and specific needs and aspirations of the three settlements within Capel civil parish [Capel, Coldharbour and Beare Green], together with the rural areas that surround them.
Accordingly, Capel Parish Council are asking you to take up the invitation from Mole Valley District Council to express your views on this point to them, please.
This may be done in two ways:
2] By letter, to Planning Policy, Mole Valley District Council, Pippbrook, Dorking, Surrey RH4 1SJ
To assist your thought processes, a letter sent by one of my neighbours is set out below. Please do not copy it slavishly!
It would also be helpful if as many people as possible from Beare Green responded to MVDC. So it would be much appreciated if you would share the contents of this note with your friends, neighbours, mums at the school-gate and folk in the pub, please.
If you do not wish to hear any more from me on this subject, please let me know. Similarly, if you think this initial stance is wrong, also let me know.
AN EXAMPLE LETTER:
Thank you for your letter of 1 June, telling me that Capel Parish Council intend to prepare a Neighbourhood Development Plan and inviting comments on the proposal that the entire parish be designated a Neighbourhood Area.
I do not support the Parish Council's intention to develop a single plan for the entire parish.
In my view, the villages of Capel, Beare Green and Coldharbour are very different, and the rural land between and around the villages has a different character altogether.
In view of this, I believe that it would not be sensible to try to accommodate all of the villages, and the rural areas, into a single plan. I consider that it would be better to develop separate plans for each of the three villages, and also for the rural area(s), so that each plan can address the distinct needs of its particular community.
I think that local residents would be more likely to engage with the process, and to support any eventual referendum, if they could see that the plans were tailored to their own, distinct neighbourhood.
I look forward to hearing that you accept this point, please.
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