Neighbourhood Plan

Winter 2018 Update

During 2018 there has been steady progress in preparing Foxton’s Neighbourhood Plan (NP). The consultation during January and February gave us strong evidence on key questions for Foxton’s future, especially housing preferences, and these then informed the preparation of draft planning policies. Our first full length draft plan was discussed with planners from South Cambridgeshire District Council (SCDC) in April, who gave constructive advice. The draft was then substantially rewritten and maps prepared.

Over the summer, progress stalled as we waited for the SCDC Local Plan process to be completed. It was eventually ratified in the early autumn and we could then instigate the ‘call for sites’ process, the last piece in the jigsaw for our draft NP. Three sites came forward through this process and after a further delay, external consultants (paid for through a government NP grant pot) are carrying out their independent assessment of these potential development sites.

We now expect the completed draft plan to be considered by Foxton Parish Council at their February meeting, and if approved, a formal six week consultation period on this pre-submission consultation draft will follow.

Watch this space for further details.

Foxton's Neighbourhood Plan

Foxton Parish Council are creating a Neighbourhood Plan, which should enable the Parish Council to have much more of a say in the outcome of planning applications in the village. Currently, all decisions are made by South Cambridgeshire District Council (SCDC), although the Parish Council are consulted on all applications. A Neighbourhood Plan would allow the Parish Council to set out what development would be allowed in the village.

Progress

Progress reports for 2017 and 2018 can be found here.

The Survey

The questionnaire survey delivered to every household in Foxton parish generated an encouraging response. 162 completed copies were received by the deadline, with 75% of respondents aged over 45. Special thanks go to Elaine McCarthy for her professional analysis of the completed questionnaires, and her excellent presentation of the main findings in the attached document. The sample is not truly representative of all Foxton residents, as it was a self completion exercise with responses dominated by the older age groups. However, the results do give the Parish Council's Neighbourhood Plan working group a clear steer on the important issues, both now and into the future.

We are planning to engage with more younger residents over the next few months, to try and ensure we have a broader cross section of views about Foxton moving forward.

The findings, taken together with relevant statistical evidence and policies from other sources, will help the working group decide on the priority objectives and policies for Foxton's emerging Neighbourhood Plan. The Neighbourhood Plan will focus on future land uses in the parish for the next 15 years or so, including housing, community facilities, environment, transport and employment. Some issues raised by respondents are outside the remit of the Neighbourhood Plan process, but having this information will be very helpful to the Parish Council in influencing future decision-making by agencies such as the Highways Department and public transport providers.

Please do read the summary of results, and keep an eye out for future consultations as work on the Neighbourhood Plan progresses.

History

At the Parish Council meeting on 6th July 2015, the Parish Council agreed to form a working party to start the process of creating the Neighbourhood Plan. Anyone with an interest in joining this working party should contact the Parish Council; the working party needs to consist of a wide range of people from all parts of the village, including local businesses. The terms of reference of this working party can be found here.

Foxton Parish Council applied to SCDC to designate the entire parish as a Neighbourhood area, for which the Neighbourhood Plan will be produced. The District Council have agreed this area, and so the Neighbourhood Plan working party have been undergoing initial consultations to find out what is important to the village of Foxton.

An important part of the Neighbourhood Plan is being able to present evidence for the proposals in the plan, so the working party is gathering evidence under various categories that will support the views in the plan. Once this has been done, it is up to the working party to put together a document outlining the proposals. This document will then be subject to a referendum in the village; if a majority of residents vote in favour, the District Council will adopt the plan and it must then be taken into account whenever a decision is made on a planning application.

The working party held a launch event in February 2016, and have been present at verious events in the village to canvas opinion. In addition, a web site (www.foxtonnp.org.uk) was set up to allow people to register their comments. The various comments received have been collated, and a summary of the views received can be found here. These views, together with the 2011 Village Plan, will be used as a basis for forming the proposals in the Neighbourhood Plan.

Minutes of the meetings of the Neighbourhood Plan committee can be found under the Meetings & Minutes page.

Neighbourhood Plan - Useful links

Some details of what a Neighbourhood Plan entails are set out in the documents linked below.

Introduction to Neighbourhood Planning

Useful links for information

Neighbourhood Plan area

The Parish boundary, which is the area that the Neighbourhood Plan will consider, is shown below:

The area plan can be downloaded as a PDF in landscape or portrait orientation.