What is a Neighbourhood Plan?

Why are we making a Neighbourhood Plan?

• To involve the whole village in shaping the future of Great Waldingfield
• To make sure that future development will not damage our village
• To find ways to protect and improve the village ourselves

     

 
 

2036 – The Vision

• A rural village, surrounded by farmland
• A thriving school, pub and shop
• New housing has a real village character and fits well into the landscape
• Everyone has access to fast broadband
• Church remains an important landmark in the village
• New facilities for young and old to keep us all healthy

 

How can we get there?

• We make a strong, detailed Neighbourhood Plan
• Voted for in a village referendum
• Independently examined and validated by Babergh
• With the same status as the Joint Local Plan
• It is then used to determine all planning applications in the village.

 

What is in the Neighbourhood Plan?

Detailed guidelines on:

• What we want to protect
• What we want to improve
• How we are going to do it

In six key areas:

• Natural Environment
• Historic Environment
• Housing
• Community Facilities
• Transport
• Employment

 

What was done in 2017/18?

 

• The boundary for the Neighbourhood Plan was decided

• A Steering Group was set up

• The village was asked what it wanted to protect and what needed improving

• Objectives were written based on this

• Evidence was gathered on the village past and present

 

 
  

      

 

 

Why did we decide to continue in 2019?

Many dangers of not doing it:

• Unsuitable/suburban development
• Green spaces and landscape views could be destroyed
• Wildlife could be decimated
• Community facilities could be lost

Many advantages of doing it:

• Avoid all of the above
• Increased money to the village for each house built (CIL money)

 

 

Why is 2020 so important?

 

• Focus/discussion groups to develop ideas in the six key areas will take place

• A village survey will allow everyone to have their say

• Guidelines/policies for the final Neighbourhood Plan will start to be written

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

How can you help?

 

We need people who care about the village to:

• Talk to neighbours

• Encourage others to get involved

• Help to deliver and collect surveys

• Join discussion groups to decide what we want to protect and improve and ways to do it