The Government Planning White Paper Consultation

Deadline 29th October 2020

The public are being asked to put forward their opinion on radical proposals which could fundamentally shake up the planning system, including Local Plans and Neighbourhood Plans and how infrastructure and affordable housing is funded.

The Government’s ambition is to build 300,000 houses per annum and speed up housing delivery. They propose to designate nationally three zones across the country, the first being a “Growth” zone, which will be suitable for substantial development, a “Renewal” zone, where are areas considered suitable for development on a smaller scale to the “Growth” zone and finally, a “Protected” zone, areas where more stringent development controls are justified.

They propose a move towards a rule-based or codified system, which will be decided on a national basis rather than at district or local level. The Government want to re-connect the community with the Planning System and aim to use digital and social media platforms in determining policy and planning applications.

There are other ambitious and radical proposals included which would fundamentally change the way planning works currently. So, if these measures were adopted what would it mean for our village ? It is difficult to predict as there is a great deal of rhetoric and little concrete detail on how all this would be implemented. Usefully we have started the Neighbourhood Plan (NP) process and the consultation wishes to retain NPs but again there is little detail to see exactly what our role may be in this new system and how much of a ‘local voice’ the village would actually have. What is clear is, that once an area has been designated/zoned, the ability to comment and influence planning decisions on individual applications appears to
be hugely diminished.

We would urge you to read the consultation, a long read we know, and answer the questions posed at the end of each section, even answering a few of the questions would be really helpful. The consultation can be accessed on the Government web-site, see below, and the deadline is 29th October 2020.

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/planning-for-the-future

Our main task since the Lockdown has been to get in the last of the Streetscape ‘walkabout’  assessments, this gives a detailed record of Ashdon as it looks today. This group of amazing  volunteers were then asked to summarise their reports and we are now collating the summaries into one document. Two volunteers are working on producing some detailed maps to illustrate this summary document, which we hope to get on to our website in the next few weeks. 

Also appearing shortly on our website is a detailed report of all the footpaths and bridleways  in our parish. This has been produced by Hugh Feldman using his expert knowledge of the  area. This should prove a valuable source of information to all our walkers and nature lovers  for many years to come and we are very grateful to Hugh for the same and effort he has put  in to producing this amazing report for Ashdon.

We continue to work on your behalf during this difficult time.

We now have the final version of the Ashdon Neighbourhood Plan Landscape Appraisal. This document will provide us with a robust evidence base to support the development of policy within the emerging Neighbourhood Plan. In particular, it gives us a detailed assessment of the sensitivity and capacity of the local landscape to accommodate housing/employment development.
We have had a very busy 3 months!  The results from the launch event questionnaires have now been fully analysed and can be found on our website. The following key themes were identified, the percentage of times they were mentioned in the questionnaires are in brackets.

1.  Sustainable travel, incl. f/paths (79.5% )                                   
2.  Community and community spaces and facilities (71.1% )      
3.  Housing (31% )                                                                           
4.  Environment (70.5% )
5.  Traffic (65% )
6.  Flooding (7.7% )

We continue with the data gathering part of the Neighbourhood Plan process to obtain more information on
the themes identified above.

The   Streetscape   ‘walkabout’   assessments   for   the   village  have   now   been   undertaken   by   a   team   of   18
volunteers. They met in the Church rooms on 27th November for an initial training session from Rachel Hogger of Modicum Planning and a planning officer from UDC. The volunteers regrouped at the end of January to discuss progress and share experiences. Nearly all their area surveys plus photos are complete and will be collated and become integral to the Plan. These surveys will also inform a ‘Design Statement’ for inclusion in the final Neighbourhood Plan document.

With the village encountering severe flooding pre-Christmas, the vulnerability of the village to flooding and the need to control surface water runoff as well as river management were highlighted again. The Ashdon Flood Group was re-started in February. They are an autonomous group, but with interests aligned to the Plan.  They will produce a report that will be encompassed within the Neighbourhood Plan.

The Landscape Appraisal Report for Ashdon has now been finalised by Alison Farmer Associates.  The Report will be used to inform various aspects of the Neighbourhood Plan.

We are currently organising the launch of the tree, hedgerow and  verge surveys and hope to undertake surveys in early Spring with a review in late Summer to take account of seasonal changes.

The next major consultation event was planned for Friday 22nd May and Saturday 23rd May in the village hall.

This event is now cancelled due to the coronavirus situation

We are continuing to work on developing the scope of the plan.

On 1st May 2019 Uttlesford District Council accepted the request from Ashdon Parish Council to designate the parish of Ashdon as a Neighbourhood Plan area. The Parish Council have appointed an independent Ashdon Neighbourhood Planning Steering Group to facilitate the Neighbourhood Planning process and to help the Ashdon Community to develop its Neighbourhood Plan.