EBPC Neighbourhood Plan - November 2016 Update

Posted on November 30, 2016

This is the November 2016 update from the Neighbourhood Plan Steering Group.

Last month we mentioned that we had engaged the services of rCOH, a planning consultancy that has been helping many parishes to produce their Neighbourhood Plans (NP). rCOH are also supporting the Edlesborough NP and will try to achieve a consistent approach between both Plans. New houses in Edlesborough and Eaton Bray have implications on both villages; a good example of this is one shared doctor's surgery.

Some of our Steering Group, together with rCOH, met with Central Bedfordshire Council to discuss and understand the current position of the work CBC have done or are currently working through during development of the Local Plan and the role CBC's Community Plan plays in effecting our NP and the analysis and conclusions they have reached so far in providing us with information that will help us develop our NP.

Earlier in the year, in a Call For Sites request, CBC asked landowners if they wished to offer up land as potential development sites. The site assessment criteria CBC will use will be issued by the end of November (this article was written before confirmation that the publication date has been met). Once they have carried out the assessments their conclusions will be made available to us. This will also include a review of the Green Belt around the village for possible "roll back", in other words land that may be taken out of Green Belt classification. We understand that the quantity of new homes that could be required by CBC may be in the region of 150.Therefore, including the AVDC requirement for Edlesborough, the potential number for our two villages may be in the region of 300. In the coming months, the steering group will be working on identifying sites that will accommodate CBC's growth requirement and will be asking the village you for your views on the possible location of new homes in Eaton Bray.

A Neighbourhood Plan is not all about new houses we have not forgotten the environmental and infrastructure implications resulting from development. We are working on a number of topics that will provide useful information in the development of the NP. For example, in December you may have seen some of the team carrying out a traffic survey in the village at rush hour. This information will help identify which direction traffic leaves and comes into the village at peak times helping us minimise traffic disruption.

We will be engaging with the villagers over the coming months to seek views and input. We are currently focussing on having the draft plan ready for the village to review during the first half of 2017.

We hope you found this update useful and in coming months we will provide information of the further work of the Steering Group. If you feel you can offer any support, it doesn't need to be attending monthly meetings, perhaps you have the time to help a sub group in data collection/ research, please contact the Parish Clerk at www.ebpc.co.uk - please feel free to attend the next Steering Group meeting.

Source: Eaton Bray Parish Council