WHY THE PARISH COUNCIL WISHES TO REVIEW THE NEIGHBOURHOOD PLAN
The Glapthorn Neighbourhood Plan (GNP) covers the fifteen-year period, from when work on the plan started in 2016, through to 2031. It was "made" (that is adopted) following a village referendum and examination by the then East Northamptonshire Council (ENC) on the 30th July 2018.
The referendum result was extremely significant (unheard of according to ENC) with an 82% vote in favour on a turnout of 69%.
The final section of the plan (Para 11.2) states:
"It is expected that a thorough review of the GNP will be appropriate midway through the plan period."
It was, therefore, envisaged, back when the plan was prepared and subsequently approved by the village referendum, that a thorough review would be required at the stage we are now at in 2024/25.
When the plan was prepared the ENC Rural North Oundle and Thrapston Plan (RNOTP) was the relevant local plan, but work was under way on its replacement, the Local Plan Part 2. This was completed by North Northamptonshire Council (NNC) and was adopted in December 2023. The GNP expressly envisaged that a review was likely to be necessary in the context of considering "the implications if any of the emerging Local Plan Part 2".
This new plan, which runs to 2031, did not specifically allocate any housing sites in Glapthorn, but it did allocate three sites for residential development in Oundle, one of which, "Cotterstock Meadows" (a development off Cotterstock Road), is only partly in Oundle with the remainder of the development being within the parish of Glapthorn. Although Glapthorn Parish Council had not wanted that part of the site to be developed it was not allowed to include this in its neighbourhood plan on the basis that the site had been identified as a possible site for residential development beyond the RNOTP plan period.
Policy 8 of the GNP states:
"In order to maintain the established pattern of development and conserve the character of Glapthorn as a separate and distinct village and to be supported, development proposals (with the exception of a site that is allocated or is identified for possible housing development in a current Development Plan document) must demonstrate that they will not have a significant adverse impact on the open nature of the countryside between Glapthorn and Oundle when viewed from publicly accessible locations."
The words in brackets had to be included at the express direction of ENC to cater for the development of the Cotterstock Road site.
All three sites allocated for residential development in Oundle for the period to 2031 already have planning permission and the Cotterstock Road site is under development now. The Local Plan Part 2 does not identify any possible sites for future residential development beyond the plan period that would affect Glapthorn. However, NNC has started work on a replacement for the Local Plan Part 2 which would run to 2041.
The concern of the parish council is that against this background:
1. NNC might come under pressure to permit residential development on sites not currently allocated for development in any plan, particularly given the new government's intended planning reforms (which, by the way, make no reference to Neighbourhood Planning) and the stated desire for the construction of 300,000 houses each year and,
2. although the GNP will have to be taken into account by NNC in determining applications up to 2031 developers might begin to press for the plan to be discounted as it was conceived many years beforehand at the time of the RNOTP and prior to the new political emphasis on building homes.
Whilst having an updated neighbourhood plan cannot guarantee that the only new housing to be developed would be that approved of by the parish council, it will, in the view of the council, make this significantly more likely.
Part of the process of reviewing and updating the plan will be a fresh call for sites for a new plan period (probably 2025 to 2041 to tie in with the new NNC plan under development). The council anticipates that further residential development during such period will be necessary but wants a new plan to direct what housing there should be and where and, ideally, where it should not be with the current Policy 8 no doubt much to the fore.
Reviewing and updating the plan will, the council anticipates be a far simpler exercise than preparing a plan from scratch as was the case last time. It may well be that the revised plan will carry forward many of the policies contained in the existing plan. These existing policies cover:
1. site allocations
2. settlement boundary
3. housing development within the settlement boundary
4. supporting rural diversification
5. protecting landscape character
6. green infrastructure
7. built environment
8. avoiding coalescence
9. local green space
10. design principles
11. mitigating traffic and road safety issues
12. protecting existing and supporting new community and recreational facilities and services.
Glapthorn Parish Council Minute adopted 20 November 2024