Agenda item

Report by Senior Planning Policy Officer (attached).

Council considered a report by the Senior Planning Policy Officer (circulated previously) regarding Georgeham Neighbourhood Plan.

The Senior Planning Policy Officer advised the following:

·       An adopted Neighbourhood Plan would form part of the Council’s statutory development plan and be used alongside the North Devon and Torridge Local Plan in determining planning applications in the parish of Georgeham.

·       The responsibility for preparing a neighbourhood plan resided with the designated “qualifying body” being Georgeham Parish Council. However, the Council (as local planning authority) had a range of legislative responsibilities that it was required to discharge in support of neighbourhood planning.

·       The Parish of Georgeham was formally designated as a Neighbourhood Area for the purposes of neighbourhood planning by resolution of this Council in December 2015.

·       The Parish Council embarked on the process of preparing the neighbourhood plan, carrying out an extensive programme of work and engagement with the local community.

·       A formal pre-submission consultation was undertaken in accordance with the neighbourhood planning regulations in February 2021.

·       Following the Parish Council’s consideration of all the representations received, the Neighbourhood Plan was submitted formally to the Council on 9 May 2021.

·       Following a series of checks, the Council undertook formal consultation on the submission Neighbourhood Plan in accordance with the neighbourhood planning regulations for a period of 6 weeks.

·       In July 2021, the Council appointed an Independent Examiner to determine whether the Plan should be recommended to proceed to referendum. In doing so the examiner was required to consider a number of issues as detailed in paragraph 4.7 of the report.

·       The Independent Examiners report was attached to the report as Appendix A. The Examiner had only proposed 8 modifications to the plan as detailed in Appendix A of the Examiners report.

·       The Examiner commended the Parish Council for their efforts on the neighbourhood plan as detailed in paragraph 4.19 of the report.

·       Officers of the Council also concurred with the sentiments of the Examiner.

It was moved by Councillor Barker and seconded by Councillor Wilkinson “that the recommendations in the report be adopted”.

RESOLVED:

(a)  That the recommendations and modifications proposed by the examiner in relation to the Georgeham Neighbourhood Plan, as set out in the examiner’s report (Appendix A) be accepted;

(b)  That the Georgeham Neighbourhood Plan be amended to include:

(i)             the Proposed Modifications set out by the examiner in his report (Appendix to the examiner’s report);

(ii)            the minor modifications identified in this report (Appendix B); and

(iii)          any further changes of a minor nature necessary to address typographic, spelling and grammatical errors, improve clarity, adjustment to ensure plan wide consistency of terminology, presentational improvements, factual updates and updated information with regard to the status of the Neighbourhood Plan;

(c)  That the Georgeham Neighbourhood Plan, as amended, proceeds to referendum, at a date yet to be determined;

(d)  That the geographical area for the referendum be the Georgeham Neighbourhood Area (Civil Parish of Georgeham); and

(e)  That the above decisions and associated reasons in a formal Decision Statement (draft Statement provided at Appendix C) be published.