Neighbourhood Plans - 100 referendums

The Neighbourhood Plan process has been running a few years now and the Dept. for Communities and Local Government celebrates the milestone of 100 referendums in England.

I thought it would be interesting to reflect on the "Scores on the Doors" paying particular attention to Sussex.  There are several steps to creating a Neighbourhood Plan, starting with designating an area.  We did this back in 2013 and you can see the map on our website.

 

I've copied the following map from the document talking about the 100 referendums.  It shows the authorities that have the most "made" Neighbourhood Plans. "made" means that they are in force, alongside the district's Local Plan.  Of the top 5, Arun is top (with 14) by a long way and Mid Sussex is doing fairly well (with 4) too.

As far as I know, none of the Wealden area plans have gone to referendum or have been "made".  A bit of quick Googling shows that about half-a-dozen Wealden communities are somewhere in the process ranging from Hellingly, who have just finished consulting on their designated area to Maresfield, who in the words of November's edition of The Fairwarp Echo...

"... have been working on a Neighbourhood Development Plan for the Parish, and have consulted, and have consulted widely on many of the issues over the last two or three years. We are expecting that a final draft will be presented for a six week final consultation in the Parish (and with outside consultees too) within the next month or two. The Plan will include some important policies for our villages which, when the Plan has been examined and approved in a parish-wide referendum, will become part of the statutory planning framework for Maresfield. Key amongst these policies will be those on housing including where in Maresfield the 50 houses should be built."

Maresfield were advised by Maroon, who assisted Uckfield with our consultation event on the 7th of March.

Richard (former Chairman) and Alec Munro of Maroon on March 7th.





Of course, if you consider the thousands of communities there must be in England,  100 isn't that big a number.  The statistics in the document show how many communities are somewhere in the process:

What struck me, reading the 100 referendums document, is that the whole process depends on volunteers. Our group is a little thin at the moment and more hands are really needed.

I am really intrigued by the contrast between Arun and other Sussex districts and I wonder what they are doing right?

The 100 referendums document is here - BEWARE that the links in it are broken so avoid touching active areas because your browser will ponder for a bit before going to a dead page.