Updates – Slinfold Parish Council

Residents who have been monitoring the progress of the Slinfold Parish Neighbourhood Plan will know that after the Examiner issued his 17 point modification to the Plan, there have been on-going discussions between the Parish Council and Horsham over which of the amendments to accept and/or reject. We are now into a further consultation period which closes on the 4th May and it is up to us as a Parish to make our views known.

SPC Response to HDC Decision Statement

West Way Map – Option 3

Examiners Report – 15th February 2018

At a meeting to discuss the Examiners Report, HDC outlined the position – this is their plan and they very much want to work with SPC. There are 3 options:

Accept plan modifications, as is, and go to referendum.
Scrap the whole plan
Accept some but not all the mods (Preferred option)

HDC is prepared to make changes but as a rule wanted to try and accept as many of the examiners recommendations as possible, otherwise the Plan might have to be re-examined with the risk a new examiner doesn’t pass it.

In summary, the main issues are:

HDC do want to see numbers for sites. They will word numbers as “at least…” which gives a 10% tolerance
They want us to review the allocation on Hayes Lane as 15 is too low and we should review our rationale.
They do support the Examiners suggestion to remove the scout hut from Crosby farm.They do recommend we beef up the Cobblers to include the scout hut explicitly.
They support the removal of End of Westway as a site and the consequent removal of the Central fields as Local Green Space. They will reference in their explanations that Central Fields will be picked up in a forthcoming Conservation area review and they have prioritised Slinfold.

The process hereon is HDC publishes its explanation of the modifications and holds another 6 week consultation. then 5 weeks later they make their decision to either go to referendum or go for re-examination.

2017

Important Update – 3rd September 2017

We have been advised by HDC that they uploaded the wrong version of our Neighbourhood Plan onto their consultation website. They now need to rerun the 6 week consultation.

A further consultation of the plan will now run for 6 weeks from the 11 September 2017 to 5pm on the 23 October 2017.

Horsham District council have expressed their sincere apologies for this error.

Where are we now and what happens next? – 3rd May 2017

Draft Plan – 6 week public consultation (done)
Following consultation any necessary amendments to the Plan, the Parish will then submit the Neighbourhood Plan to HDC (done)
HDC will manage a further 6 week consultation (we are currently here)
HDC will appoint an independent Examiner to carry out the examination of the Plan
If the Examiner recommends the Plan it can proceed to Referendum which HDC will organise
If the majority of the Parish vote in favour of the Plan, HDC will then formally adopt the Neighbourhood Plan as part of their Development Plan

*Remember, No plan or a poor plan leads to unlimited development of up to 890 homes.

2016

Slinford Neighbourhood Plan Update – 19th March 2016

It’s been a while since the last Slinfold Neighbourhood Plan Working Group (SNPWG) update but behind the scenes we have been extremely busy and are now approaching a crucial stage for the whole process.

You will recall last November we held our most recent public exhibition where ideas for the emerging plan were displayed and residents of the parish gave their views on the “sustainability” of sites using the same approach that the SNPWG has adopted by considering criteria for economic, social and environmental benefits. The results of the event were posted on the Slinfold Neighbourhood Plan website (slinfoldnplan.org.uk) soon after the event and mirrored the conclusions of the Working Group.

Since November the SNPWG has been cross checking the multitude of data that has been used to assess sites and just before Christmas commissioned Dowsett Mayhew to pull together the first draft of the plan.

Following a number of NPWG sessions reviewing the draft plan, the first formal draft was presented to Slinfold Parish Council on Monday 14th of March at an Extraordinary General Meeting Open to the public. After detailed discussion the plan was voted by a majority of 8 to 1 in favour.

The next steps are to submit the plan formally to Horsham District Council and then the Parish Council will start a formal consultation process. At time of print we are not sure of the exact dates but do keep a look out on the website as well as for notices and banners around the Parish as it is likely to be in the forthcoming weeks. For any queries in the interim, please forward them to info@slinfoldnplan.org.uk.

Ed Skeates Chair SNPWG

2015

Neighbourhood Plan Emerging Options – 31st August 2015

The Neighbourhood Plan is making steady progress and we hope to be publishing the draft plan in the near future as part of the public consultation process. Progress has been slower than we would have wanted but this Neighbourhood Plan is our way of determining what gets built and where, so it is important we get it right. We have to ensure that the plan is a thorough piece of work based on national policy, strong evidence and proper due diligence so that the Examiner recommends the plan can proceed to Referendum. If we have NO plan or if our plan is NOT accepted by the examiner it will open the door to speculative developers across all sites and so it is essential that we get this right. This is what the NPWG are working on to ensure the best results for the whole of the parish of Slinfold.

National policy specifies that sites need to be ‘sustainable’ and therefore it must have three crucial dimensions – support economic growth, protect the environment and deliver social benefits through a strong and healthy community. The NP process has been highly iterative with a vast amount of data gathering and surveying covering each of these areas. Fundamentally the centre of the village has the majority of the facilities particularly the school, shop, pub and recreational facilities and so the further any development takes place from these key amenities, the less sustainable it is.

We reported in the Slinfold Parish Magazine that the preferred sites from the May consultation raised conflict with national and HDC policy. Since the May consultation we have now been in to see Horsham DC and they confirmed that we need to try and bring more of the new housing development closer to the existing facilities to secure their support and improve the chances of an Examiner recommending the plan can proceed to Referendum. Another important piece of evidence has been the results of our landscape assessment which has surveyed each site in detail and assessed their respective merits for being developed. Subsequently it has meant that some sites have had to be reconsidered and others revised to bring together a list of sites that stands a strong chance of passing the Examination.

The headlines are: that the sites coming forward will provide potentially fewer homes (130 compared to previously up to 170) but across more sites focused around the settlement area of Slinfold; the central fields provide a strong landscape to the village and have very limited scope to be developed; much smaller housing development which facilitates the future/ ongoing economic use of some outlying sites may be considered. The outcome is hopefully a range of sites that are smaller and less intrusive and less likely to distort the character of the Parish. It is hoped the emerging plan spreads the load of new housing more evenly and represents a strong way forward. The next step is to test this with the Parish again at a static exhibition at the end of September or early October and explain the methodology and results. We can then finalise and publish the draft plan for public consultation.

Kind regards,
Slinfold Neighbourhood Plan Working Group

Help to Record the Rich Biodiversity of the Parish – 20th May 2015

Help to record the rich biodiversity of the Parish from hedgegrows, hedge sparrows and hedgehogs to birds and bees online!

Slinfold Parish supports a wide variety of plant and animal life and habitats, including arable, woodland, hedgegrows, grassland, as well as rivers and associated environments. Buildings within the parish are also capable of providing a habitat to the wide variety of wildlife.

We have started building a database to record he rich biodiversity of the parish – what we have and where it is – from hedgegrows, hedge sparrows and hedgehogs to birds, bees and butterflies… It’s a mammoth task and we need your help!

If you see anything unusual or worth noting (rabbits, squirrels and foxes don’t count!), you can go online and record your findings on iRecord.

iRecord makes it easier for wildlife sightings to be collated, checked by experts and made available to support research and decision making at local and national levels. Join iRecord now to share your sightings with the recording community, explore dynamic maps and graphs of your data and make a real contribution to science and conservation.

http://www.brc.ac.uk/irecord/

Thank you,
Slinford Neighbourhood Plan Working Group