Chiddingfold Neighbourhood plan was adopted following a referendum held on 8th July 2021

Chiddingfold – results

Votes
Yes 615

No 61

Total votes 676
Number of ballot papers rejected 2

Share of the votes
Yes 91.0%

No 9.0%

Click here for an accessible PDF version of the Declaration of Result.

Open Letter from the Parish Council on the impact of the Neighbourhood Plan and development in the Parish

What is a Neighbourhood Plan?

Neighbourhood Plans are relatively new planning documents introduced by the Localism Act 2011. They are intended to give local communities a greater say in guiding the future development of their area and relate to the use and development of land and associated social, economic and environmental issues (such as housing, transport, heritage and employment). Our Neighbourhood Plan will cover the period until 2032.

When adopted they form part of the Planning Framework against which local planning applications will be considered by the Local Planning Authority (Waverley Borough Council), giving the local community a greater say on future development within Chiddingfold.

In addition, areas with an adopted Neighbourhood Plan receive 25% of Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) payments charged against development in the parish rather than the 15% payable where there is no plan. CIL payments are used by parish councils to deliver new infrastructure to support development of their area.

New Housing

The Neighbourhood Plan took on the role of allocating sites for housing development to meet the target set by Waverley Borough Council (WBC) in response to the overall targets set by government. A minimum of 130 new homes in the Parish was set for the period 2013-32 (some of this number have already been built). The task of allocating sites would have been undertaken by WBC, through their Local Plan Part 2, if not dealt with within the Neighbourhood Plan. Doing so through the Neighbourhood Plan has allowed for a far greater level of local decision making and community consultation.

Due to the extremely limited amount of space within the defined settlement and the fact that vast majority of the Parish is washed over by Green Belt, it has been necessary to alter the Settlement and Green Belt Boundaries in order to allocate sites for development.

How was the Neighbourhood Plan produced?

The preparation of the plan was undertaken by the Chiddingfold Neighbourhood Plan Steering Group under the direction of the Parish Council. There have been a number of events and exercises over several years to involve and inform the community in this process.

There are several formal stages to take a draft plan forward to adoption, including consultations, formal consideration by the local planning authority and independent examination on behalf of the Secretary of State. The Independent Examiner considers the plan for compliance with planning policy and rules and issues a report with any recommended modifications to enable the Neighbourhood Plan to proceed to public referendum.

The Plan progressed through Regulation 14 pre-submission consultation in August 2019, following this policies were revised in light of consultation responses and feedback from statutory consultees was incorporated.

AECOM undertook a Habitat Regulations Assessment, after which the Plan and policies were further reviewed and the final draft was approved by the full council on 09 July 2020.

The draft Plan was submitted to Waverley Borough Council as the local planning authority, for a review of compliance with legislative requirements (Regulation 15) ahead of a public representation period (Regulation 16) during which residents and interested parties were able to view and comment on the Plan and supporting documents. That consultation concluded at 11.59 pm on Monday 11 January 2021.

The Plan was then presented to the Independent Examiner, who recommended that, subject to specific modification, it could proceed to referendum. Those modifications were accepted and the Decision Statement published by Waverley Borough Council. Following the incorporation of the modifications the plan was resubmitted to Waverley Borough Council who published the Information Statement and fixed the referendum date for 8th July 2021.

The earliest stages of consultation on the Neighbourhood Plan took the form of three drop-in sessions which were held in May and June 2014. Attendees were also issued with a short questionnaire which helped identify the issues the Plan needed to address. The next consultation events took place between 27th January and 30th March 2017 and this included 2 drop-in sessions, which were attended by 549 residents and this generated 327 completed questionnaires. In March that year, a separate business survey was conducted by questionnaire which elicited 26 responses. In May 2017 another drop-in session was held for the residents and the questionnaires distributed at these sessions produced 342 responses. Different issues were tested out at 2 more drop-in events held in June 2017 which included site specific questions. This produced 416 responses. The next phase were 3 preview events held in the Village Hall in February 2019 generating 311 completed questionnaires, which looked at issues such as overall housing numbers, proposed site allocations and revisions to the settlement boundary. All this activity culminated with the preparation of the Pre-Submission version of the Neighbourhood Plan which was the subject of a six – week consultation, known as the Regulation 14 consultation, which ran from 15th July to 26th August 2019. In total 60 representations were received. These are fully set out in Appendix 6 of the Consultation Statement. I am satisfied that the Parish Council has actively sought the views of local residents and other stakeholders and their input has helped shape the Plan. John Slater BA (Hons), DMS, MRTPI - A Report to Waverley Borough Council on the Examination of the Chiddingfold Neighbourhood Plan Report (paras 20-26)

Thumb	Name	Size
	NP_Docs/2_Supporting-Docs/ 2_Supporting-Docs directory2_Supporting-Docs Open 57.88 MB 2021-01-27 27th January 2021 2021-06-21 21st June 2021	3 Items
	NP_Docs/3_Evidence-Base-Documents/ 3_Evidence-Base-Documents directory3_Evidence-Base-Documents Open 9.37 MB 2021-01-27 27th January 2021 2021-06-21 21st June 2021	4 Items
	NP_Docs/4_Independent-Examiner/ 4_Independent-Examiner directory4_Independent-Examiner Open 1.01 MB 2021-02-26 26th February 2021 2021-06-21 21st June 2021	3 Items
	NP_Docs/5_Other-Documents/ 5_Other-Documents directory5_Other-Documents Open 186.16 MB 2021-05-28 28th May 2021 2021-06-21 21st June 2021	7 Items
	Chiddingfold-Neighbourhood-Plan-AS-ADOPTED.pdf application/pdfChiddingfold-Neighbourhood-Plan-AS-ADOPTED.pdf Open Download Copy Link 8.15 MB 2021-08-18 18th August 2021 2021-08-18 18th August 2021	8.15 MB
	Declaration-of-results-Chiddingfold-NPR-002-Accessible.pdf application/pdfDeclaration-of-results-Chiddingfold-NPR-002-Accessible.pdf Open Download Copy Link 103.1 KB 2021-08-18 18th August 2021 2021-08-18 18th August 2021	103.1 KB

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