Ticehurst Neighbourhood Plan - Steering Group
Regulation 16 to “Made” Plan
Regulation 16 & Independent Examination
Following the draft plan consultation which ran from
6 weeks from 2nd
January to 14th February 2018 the plan was updated for Regulation 16
and an independent examination.
Initially Rother District Council
confirmed the documents met the
regulation requirements before publishing the plan on their website.
This was followed by Regulation 16 for six weeks, from 9am Friday 9th
November to 4.30pm Friday 21st December 2018. RDC created a
poster to publicise it.
This allowed statutory bodies (e.g. ESCC, Natural England, utilities etc.)
and others, including individuals, to put forward representations – they
can Object, Support or Comment on any part of the plan – and RDC
logged these representations.
Duly made representations were processed and then published
on the RDC website.
In the next stage in the process an Independent Examiner was
appointed to take all the documentation, including the representations
from Regulation 16, and consider whether the plan conforms to the
legal requirements for neighbourhood plans.
John Slater was appointed as the Independent Examiner and
Neighbourhood News 28 has more details on this.
His initial view is that he should be able to deal with the examination of
the Plan without holding a public hearing, but reserved the right to do
so. Based on a preliminary consideration there are a small number of
matters he wishes to receive further representation from TPC and RDC,
these are detailed in his initial comments.
In his initial comments he asked for a response from TPC and RDC.
The TPC has published its response with 9 associated documents on
the evidence page and RDC has published its response on their
website.
He has published his final report which made recommendations. The
final plan incorporates these recommendations and is published for
viewing.
The Inspector was very complimentary over the plan, in particular:
“The Steering Group has produced a document
of the highest quality. It is well laid out and
makes excellent use of maps and
photographs, which clearly describes the
character of the plan area."
"I must congratulate Ticehurst Parish Council
for preparing a locally distinct neighbourhood
plan, which seeks to deliver on the expressed
priorities of the residents of the parish of
Ticehurst."
On the detail:
•
He has accepted our housing allocations - Orchard Farm and
Singehurst in Ticehurst and Wardsdown House in Flimwell.
•
He has taken out all green gaps except the most important one
between Flimwell and Ticehurst.
•
He has taken out one green space - where the signpost was at the
corner of the A21 in Flimwell.
•
He has asked us to insert maps of the protected viewpoints which
Rother have provided.
Most of the rest is wording to ensure that the policies are legally
watertight for planning purposes.
The plan was then ready to be voted on.
Voting and Making the Plan
After almost four years, we had completed the Ticehurst Neighbourhood
Plan to the satisfaction of the Independent Inspector. The final stage is
for the parishioners of Ticehurst to vote on whether they want the plan
to be used to help decide planning applications within the parish. This
vote took place on Thursday 27th June and everybody registered to
vote in the parish could.
A simple majority of those who vote will mean that our plan will be
adopted legally by Rother District Council. The results were 82% in
favour with a 26.5% turnout.
On 8th July, Rother District Council formally “made” the plan. It is
now part of the Development Plan for Rother and is “a key policy
document in the determination of planning applications for
development in Ticehurst Parish”.
Use the links below to see the plan:
•
The final made plan in a more web friendly viewing version.
•
The final made plan is available on the evidence page.
Ticehurst Neighbourhood Plan
Flimwell - Stonegate - Ticehurst
Ticehurst
Civil Parish