Agenda item

Members gave consideration to a report to fully ‘make’ (adopt) the Hemswell and Harpswell 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 both parishes.

In the absence of the Ward Member, the Chairman of Council introduced the report and advised Members the Neighbourhood Plan had been prepared by a residents’ steering group on behalf of both parish councils; 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, and detailed in the report.

The Hemswell and Harpswell Neighbourhood Plan had involved two rounds of public consultation and had been successful at examination and recently at referendum, which had seen residents voting 86% in favour of the Plan. In the wider context, the adoption meant that West Lindsey now had 24 adopted Plans and 19 in preparation.

The Chairman again welcomed Councillor Bryan Mander, Chairman of Hemswell Parish Council, to the meeting and prior to Members debating the matter invited him to make a short address to Council and present the successful Neighbourhood Plan.

Councillor Mander, addressed the meeting and made the following short address: -

“I'm pleased to be representing Hemswell and Harpswell, Neighbourhood Plan Steering Group and Hemswell Parish Council, and for having the opportunity to hand over this document to West Lindsey District Council for its consideration for adoption. 

This moment has been a long time coming as we designated the area back in April 2017, and since then, steering groups navigated quite a few hurdles in the process and a global pandemic, so we finally arrived at this point.

We have been very proud to continuously involve the communities of both Hemswell and Harpswell and other relevant statutory bodies in developing the Plan. Identifying and detailing within the document, what the community felt was important for consideration with regard to the planning and development, and we've kept them appraised of the Plan’s development and sought their feedback throughout the process.

We've also utilised, recognised Planning and Heritage consultants to help develop the Plan and the supporting documents, and we are very proud of the document that we've created. I would also like to thank Nev Brown, a senior planning officer, for his assistance during the creation of the Plan and, as has been mentioned, the External Examiner in his report was, in our opinion, very complimentary.  He not only concluded the Plan met the basic conditions but he also commended the collaborative approach the Neighbourhood Plan Steering Group had taken during the development of the Plan.

We are therefore extremely happy to receive that resounding 86% vote in favour of the Plan and I'm therefore proud to present this Plan to the Council for its consideration for adoption.

The Chairman of Council then formally received the Plan from Councillor Mander to a round of applause.

Members across the floor congratulated the Group on their remarkable achievement with Members expressing their understanding of, and therefore their admiration of, the amount of work, engagement and involvement and determination it took to reach adopted status.

The Chairman of Planning Committee spoke of the importance of Neighbourhood Plans, the precedent level they held in terms of decision making; outlining the hierarchy of policy documents and the ability and impact of Neighbourhood Plans in allowing  local people to actually set out what development they would like to see in their own locations, in their own environments.  This gave people in each settlement the ability to put a focus on where and how they would like to see the planning system moving forwards.

As such, this Neighbourhood Plan would take precedent over National Planning Policy Framework, and indeed the current Central Lincs Plan.  The Central Lincs Plan, currently under review, would have to take into consideration the Neighbourhood Plan, prepared by the local community and it would now influence planning policy in West Lindsey. He called for more communities to embark on the journey of producing a neighbourhood plan.  

Having been moved and seconded it was: -

RESOLVED that the Hemswell and Harpswell Neighbourhood Plan be adopted and made.