Issue - meetings

Members are asked to adopt the Plan.

Having formally adopted the Plan, representatives from the Parish Council/ Neighbourhood Planning Steering Group will be in attendance to address Council and formally present their Plan.

Members gave consideration to a report to fully ‘make’ (adopt) the Hemswell Cliff Neighbourhood Plan following a successful referendum. Once adopted the plan would become part of the development plan for the District and would have major influence on planning application decisions in the parish.

The Chairman of Council introduced the report and advised Members the Neighbourhood Plan had been prepared by a residents’ steering group on behalf of the parish council; congratulating the Group for their time and effort in ensuring the Plan reached the final stage.

Members’ attention was drawn to the compliments of the Examiner on the Plan and its policies, as detailed in the report.

The Hemswell Cliff Neighbourhood Plan had involved two rounds of public consultation and had been successful at both examination and referendum. The referendum, held on 19 October, had seen residents voting 95% in favour of the Plan.

The Chairman formally welcomed the Chairman of the Hemswell Cliff Neighbourhood Plan Committee, Mrs Connie Hurd and Mr Mark Hurd, Committee Member to the meeting.  Prior to Members debating the matter, the Chairman invited both the Ward Councillor and Mrs Hurd to address Council and present the successful Neighbourhood Plan.

The Ward Member spoke of his delight at reaching this stage, the enormous amount of work and commitment shown by the residents, and of the nuances the area experienced, given its former RAF base status.

Mrs Connie Hurd made the following statement: -

“Councillor Howitt-Cowan, Councillor Bunney, Nev Brown, Officers and Members of West Lindsey District Council and guests,

This is a day some of us in Hemswell Cliff have been waiting for since February 2016, which was 7 years and 6 months ago. Tonight is the night that West Lindsey District Council adopts the Hemswell Cliff Neighbourhood Plan! (hopefully).

Little did my husband and I know that when we went along to learn about the neighbourhood plan for Hemswell Cliff, seven and a half years ago, that it would take so long to bring to completion, and a whole lot more work than we realised in the beginning.

Our Hemswell Cliff Neighbourhood Plan Committee was really pleased (and I was relieved) that when our referendum took place, the plan passed. It has been a long journey for a small group of people who knew little or nothing about planning and for some people at West Lindsey District Council as well as people from a myriad of organisations.

As most of you know, a lot of work goes into the preparation of these plans, with consulting the residents and local businesses about their thoughts and ideas, and in writing the plans to legal and acceptable standards. Then comes the scrutinizing and questioning of the plans by various agencies with resulting changes to be made. We want to thank many different people for making this happen: our parish clerk, Helen Reek; Hemswell Cliff parish council chairman, Graham Prestwood; Hemswell Cliff Primary School; Nev Brown of WLDC; the planners without whom we could not have  ...  view the full minutes text for item 39