Parish looks to the community to write Neighbourhood Plan

A SECOND meeting was held last week to allow people of Heywood Parish to discuss what they would like to see in their Neighbourhood Plan, a document that sets out planning policies for the area.

A Neighbourhood Plan will give the people living in the parish the opportunity  to create a plan that allows them to develop planning policies that reflect the priorities of their area.

In order to do this, the parish has to hold a series of public meetings to gain information about what people would like to be included in the initial plan such as items they like and dislike about their parish. A draft plan is then formed and shown to the parish to ensure it fulfils their ambitions.

It then needs to be independently audited, agreed by Wiltshire Council and then further agreed on by 51% of the parish during a referendum. Once agreed, it then has equal footing with current planning laws, national policy framework and the Wiltshire Core Strategy. All four will govern future decisions about new and existing buildings in the parish.

A questionnaire is available for members of the parish to complete, voicing their likes and concerns, that will be collated to form the Neighbourhood Plan. It is available for you to complete on the Parish Council website at www.heywood parishcouncil.co.uk. Questionnaires are available to return until Friday 7th September. You can also return paper copies to either The Ham Post Office, or The Royal Oak in Hawkeridge.

Chairman of Heywood Parish Council, John Masson said, “It is important to state that a Neighbourhood Plan cannot say no to planning applications, if it is in line with the Core Strategy, so that’s one policy that won’t be in there. However, we have had concerns about our roads that run through the parish such as the A350 and the B3097 which we will look at, as increasing amounts of heavy vehicles continue to use and will be added to once Hawke Ridge Business Park is running and also if permission is granted for the gasification plant.

“This is the initial phase of the Neighbourhood Plan and we look to speak to you about what you would like to see. Once we have ideas, we will hold more meetings to expand on those ideas and take any questions further to build up as much information as we can. The Parish Council can’t dictate what we want to do, it has to come from the people in the parish.”