Time to get involved!

Neighbourhood Development Plan Regulation 14 consultation

This consultation will be live from 20^th January and run until 3^rd March. Don’t miss your chance to let us know what you think.

To review the documents, go to http://bigplan.suttonbengerparishcouncil.gov.uk/reg-14-consultation/ and submit your feedback online.

Printed documents can be accessed at the Church or the Pit Stop.  Comments can be left in the notebook provided.

Not sure what this is all about? Check out our FAQs

Over the last few months, the team has been busy finalising the core documents that will form the submission to Wiltshire Council followed by an independent examination and referendum.  Before that submission happens there is the most important phase so far – this is the Regulation 14 Consultation, and this is where we ask for your views.

We plan to kick off this pre-submission consultation at the Parish Council meeting on December 14^th at 6:45 pm in the Village Hall and we invite you to come along, look at the documents and let us know your feedback. STOP PRESS: Although we will be at the Village Hall to answer all your questions, not all documents will be available.  However, keep an eye out for the revised start date of the consultation online and on village notice boards. 

The full documents will be available to look at and we will summarise the main points and policies for you.  Physical documents will be available for you as well as online so you can review them at your own pace.

This pre-submission consultation will run for around 8 weeks rather than the statutory 6 to consider the Christmas period.  Following this,  the plan will be finalised, with modifications, as necessary.  Then the plan is submitted to Wiltshire Council, with supporting statements.

Please join us for the kick-off meeting on Dec 14^th and contact us with your Feedback.

Your NDP team will be at the Annual Village Meeting to answer any questions and discuss the plan to date.

Summary Slides are attached

Slides for the Village Meeting May 25th 2022

We’d love to hear your thoughts on our Vision and Objectives for Sutton Benger, contact us with your opinions.

Our vision for Sutton Benger & Draycot Cerne is:

To maintain the rural character and landscape of the Parish (Plan Area), whilst supporting sustainable development that is of an appropriate scale and design to benefit the local community.

Our objectives are:

Protecting the Built and Rural Environment

• To ensure that new sustainable development respects the form and pattern of development of the settlements in the Parish and is designed to be of a high quality and energy-efficient design which is compatible with the local character and the local landscape.
• To identify, protect and enhance the Parish’s designated and non-designated heritage assets and their setting.
• To maintain the Parish’s rural setting, while retaining the openness between the settlements to protect their individual identity
• Enhance natural capital and biodiversity assets within the Parish
• To reduce existing and future flood risk to Sutton Benger and surrounding communities

Housing

• To support appropriate and sustainable minor development/infill housing schemes (including those to meet local needs) within the settlements in accordance with the Character Appraisal and Design Guide, to maintain the rural character of the Parish.
• To ensure any proposed housing meets the requirements of villagers as identified in the Rural Housing Needs Survey

Transport & Accessibility

• To improve accessibility by non-vehicular modes of transport within the Parish by promoting improvements to the existing footpath linkages.
• Ensure that the Weight Limit and speed limit through the village is maintained at a suitable limit befitting the village context (community aspiration).
• To protect and improve public transport services (community aspiration).
• To ensure adequate levels of off-road parking provisions are provided and locate new development such that it does not exacerbate existing problems

Open Space

• To maintain, enhance and improve access to public open spaces for all members of the community and protect these spaces from inappropriate development.

Better Facilities for Local People

To seek opportunities wherever possible to maintain and enhance the social and economic vitality of the Parish by supporting and expanding the range of services and facilities.

A big thank you to all of you who took part in the Rural Housing Needs Survey you can have a look at the results here:

https://www.wiltshireintelligence.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/RHNS-Report-Sutton-Benger-2022-Final-.pdf

What is a Green Space?

It is a green area that is important to village life. For instance, because of its recreational value, or perhaps it is significant for wildlife, or its beauty or the tranquillity it offers.

For example, a village green, allotments, the Sutton Benger Rec, footpaths, bridleways, riverbanks, highway verges.

To meet planning criteria, a green space must be i.) close to the community ii.) of local importance, iii.) local in character and NOT an extensive tract of land.

How can you help?

We want to know about areas that you think are important so we can consider them as part of the neighbourhood plan; send us your comments and photos by 21st March 2021.

Contact us by email or on FaceBook

Review the current Green Spaces by downloading this file: Sutton Benger Green Spaces

As many of you will know and realise 2020 was an unusual one and like with many other plans it has set back our progress. So, over the coming months, we would like to bring everyone up to date. And would of course love to hear from you in return.

Your core NDP (Neighbourhood Development plan) team has grown, see updated team page, and we are very much looking forward to life returning to some sort of normality soon, so we can finish our parish plan this year.

We meet every two weeks, currently due to Covid restrictions this is on Zoom and look forward to these restrictions being lifted later in the year, so we can go back to meeting in the pub!

Many may still wonder why we need an NDP, well the key benefits are.

• It gives us, the residents of Sutton Benger and Draycot Cerne more say and control over our community.
• It can protect areas from types of change.
• It can include policies to influence new building design or alterations to existing buildings.
• It can protect or propose the creation of open spaces (Green spaces, Nature reserves/wildlife corridors, allotments, sports pitches, play areas, parks and gardens, and important historic assets)
• It enables the local community to retain more of the money collected from development, to spend on local projects.
• It enables us to ensure we protect the things we value the most.
• It enables to manage change effectively and ensure they benefit our community.

It is worth remembering that an NDP takes (on average) 300 hours to produce over a minimum of 3 years. It is a massive task and cannot be underestimated. We cannot do it alone, so at times we will ask for your input and may also need extra help, so do look out for our updates and posters. We are making this commitment for all and look forward to your support.

Thanks for reading this and look forward to a healthy and successful 2021 for all.

SB NDP Group

The NDP team will be providing regular updates on the progress on the Neighbourhood Development Plan over the coming months in order to bring everyone up-to-date on our progress and hopefully get some feedback from you all in return.

Your core NDP team have been meeting every two weeks to get the NDP moving forward.  We have met with Bluestone (http://www.bluestoneplanning.co.uk/neighbourhood-planning/) who are the company we have partnered with to help us produce the NDP and our main focus is the character appraisal of the village which will form a key part of the plan. A Character Appraisal is used to describe the local appearance and ‘feel’ that the area has, in order to aid with design codes and policies within the Neighbourhood Development Plan.  We have taken lots of photos of the village and its houses (big shout out to Ruth Gaunt, Lesley Cadger and Amanda Gregory for taking these), and they will provide context to the character appraisal. We have also started updating the NDP document itself with the feedback given to us by Bluestone and I hope the next draft will be available early 2020.

You might wonder why we need an NDP, well the key benefits are;

• It gives us, the residents of Sutton Benger and Draycot Cerne more say and control over our community
• It can protect areas from types of change (such as too much of one type of business)
• It can include policies to influence new building design or alterations to existing buildings.
• It can protect or propose the creation of open spaces (Green Gaps, Nature reserves/wildlife corridors, allotments, sports pitches, play areas, parks and gardens, and important historic assets)
• It enables the local community to retain more of the money collected from development, to spend on local projects.
• It enables us to ensure we protect the things we value the most
• It enables to manage change effectively and ensure they benefit our community.

If you are interested in helping us in any way then please contact us. We are always looking for people to help out and it doesn’t necessarily mean a big commitment.  We appreciate not everyone has the time to attend lots of meetings and write whole documents; but, there are lots of small standalone pieces of work that need doing which may very well fit in with your areas of expertise or interest.

Wishing you all a happy new year

SB NDP Group

http://bigplan.suttonbengerparishcouncil.gov.uk/