Welcome to the Etchingham Neighbourhood Plan
Etchingham, along with many other towns and villages in England, has taken the opportunity given by the Localism Act of 2011 to have a genuine influence on the future development of our own community by creating a Neighbourhood Plan which will carry full legal status once it is made (adopted).
Working in close cooperation with the District Planners but always with the best interests of Etchingham and its future at heart, the Steering Committee (SC) agreed by the Parish Council is predominantly made up of volunteers from within the village and some councillors. The first act of the SC was to find out what Etchingham wants and needs, and how best to achieve that, both short and long term.
A detailed Questionnaire was sent out to every resident and local business with a very high rate of return and from detailed analysis of the responses, Focus Groups were created to concentrate on the issues that are important to the community, as well as gathering the evidence and presenting it properly and professionally back to the community for consultation.
A huge amount of work has gone on behind the scenes by dedicated groups of volunteers putting the first draft of the Plan together and the final version of this draft is just a couple of weeks away from being sent to Rother District Council for its approval that it is fit for purpose.
The pre-submission consultation The Regulation 14 consultation Neighbourhood planning regulations (Regulation 14) require the Draft Neighbourhood Plan Proposal to be the subject of a pre-submission consultation before it is submitted to the Local Authority, in our case Rother District Council, for independent examination. The consultation with the village as a whole, along with a long list of Statutory Consultees, will last at least 6 weeks.
Any comments received by the end of the consultation period will be considered conscientiously by the Neighbourhood Planning Group. All representations will be considered, but it is legitimate for the Neighbourhood Plan Group to take a different view. Of course, different representations may demonstrate opposing views and a planning judgement will have to be taken. A decision will be made over whether or not to amend the Neighbourhood Plan in response to each representation. The decisions on whether or not to amend the Plan, and the reasoning behind them, will be recorded, as this information will need to be incorporated into the consultation statement, a required and necessary document in the process.
The Neighbourhood Planning Group will agree the modifications and approve the resulting draft of the Plan for submission to the Local Planning Authority.
Each step of this process will be supported by expert advice but make no mistake this will be the Etchingham Plan created by Etchingham for Etchingham.
June 2021
