This is an update on what we have
been doing and a warning of a new consultation event early next year.
County Core Strategy
In meantime, NCC has published its
final draft core strategy, which is available:
We have worked with the Council’s
planning officers to ensure:
-
The strategy contains a policy reflecting the special
characteristics of the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty;
-
References to our area are sympathetic to the
neighbourhood plan objectives, and in turn
-
Our developing ideas are consistent with the
strategy.
After this round of consultation,
which finishes at the end of November, the plan will be sent for independent
examination. This is therefore the last chance for people to comment. Sections
which are of particular interest to our area are:
-
The North Northumberland Delivery Area (2.64 on)
-
Strategic objectives (3.2 on)
-
Policy 2 – High Quality Design
-
Policy 3 – Spatial Distribution
-
Section 5.46 to 5,48: Employment land, North
delivery area
-
Rural economy (5.70 onwards, and Policy 8)
-
Housing -
particularly 6.73 to 6.76 and policy 15)
-
Policy 9 on Tourism
-
Chapter 8 on conserving and enhancing the
environment, and in particular 8.47 to 8. 56 and Policy 31 on the
Northumberland Coast AONB.
-
Renewable energy is dealt with in Section 11.
Neighbourhood plan survey
The Council has still not given
us a full analysis of the survey we carried out last year but we have had
outline feedback but the 416 responses provided support for the draft vision
and objectives that were outlined.
The following
interim conclusions were prepared by the County:
Further detailed assessment of the information provided by
respondents looking to move home and stay within the neighbourhood area is
required. However, some general
conclusions can be drawn from this limited analysis:
·
A significant sample size is available from
the questionnaires returned which should be sufficient to draw reasonable
conclusions, subject to further work on the extent of second homes and holiday
homes which affects the assessment of the response rate from the resident
population;
·
The
vast majority of respondents are homeowners.
A very large proportion of these own their home outright. These respondents can be expected to have
substantial equity in their property;
·
A
relatively small proportion of respondents are looking to move either within or
out of the neighbourhood area – this would tend to indicate that the area
comprises a relatively settled population;
·
If
the survey is a true reflection of the population as a whole, and bearing in
mind the normal expectation of a response bias towards those in need of housing
particularly where people are unable to meet their needs in the market, the
extent of intentions to seek social or affordable rented accommodation or other
forms of affordable housing is low;
·
It
is understood that there is a perception that house prices are high and beyond
the means of the resident population looking to move or to set up home. These perceptions need to be validated by
reference to current and historic property prices and rents. This will require additional work. However, high house prices or rents do not appear
as significant barriers to most respondents looking to move. The lack of suitable accommodation appears as
the most common reason for households who completed the survey not being able
to meet their needs within the neighbourhood area.
·
The
evidence from the survey results could not lead to validation of a desire to
introduce planning policies that seek a high proportion of affordable housing
to meet locally expressed needs;
·
Whilst
there may be greater housing need across the wider north Northumberland area,
evidence is not in place to clearly demonstrate this. An unintended consequence of seeking a higher
proportion of affordable housing, particularly social rented accommodation, may
lead to movement from less desirable stock into new stock which presents the
potential for management issues in the existing social rented stock. A further unintended consequence of
potentially creating an oversupply of social rented accommodation in the
neighbourhood area would be the need for migration from other areas to occupy
new housing. This may not be the
intention of the neighbourhood plan group in relation to planning for
affordable housing.
Our conclusion is that one reason
for the lack of exceptional need for affordable housing is that many who would
need it have left the area – borne out by our work on the census analysis which
highlights the relatively low percentage of people under 65. We therefore
continue to support the need for affordable housing and also believe that a
proportion of new housing should be for permanent occupancy.
Policy work
Using the response from the survey
and from other evidence gathering we have established four groups looking at
different themes and working on draft policies:
- Business and employment,
covering for example the provision of small workspace units, protection of
employment land, change of use.
- Development scale, location,
look and feel, covering for example, scale and location of development, parking
provision, outdoor lighting, materials and design.
- Landscape and rural issues,
covering for example landscape protection, green spaces, camping and caravan
sites and protection of conservation areas.
- Housing policy, covering for
example affordable and permanent housing provision.
We have also had discussions
where offered with major landowners in the area to present our early thoughts
and to encourage them to consider their long term intentions for possible
development sites.
Next Steps
So far our efforts have been at
no cost as we have relied on volunteer time with some help from the County. We
now think we need professional help to turn our work into a document that will
pass the necessary inspection to form part of the planning framework for our
area. We have successfully applied for a grant from the Government’s planning
service, and have asked a planning consultant, Jenny Ludman, to help us. She
has experience of our area, having previously been the regional planning
adviser for the National Trust, and she has worked with a number of other
neighbourhood planning groups.
We have asked her to review the
work we have done, and the evidence we have collected, to produce by the end of
the year theme papers on each of the main headings, identifying any areas where
we need more evidence and including draft policies.
This will allow us to prepare a
pre-submission consultation document in the New Year. This will be informed by
the economic plan which is being prepared alongside this as part of the area’s
allocation as a Coast and Community Team area. This programme is being managed
by NCC through the AONB team and will focus on how to promote the visitor
economy while making it more relevant to the area.
We will have a launch event and
then distribute copies to all houses. Unless there are unexpected comments or
gaps in our work we should be in a position for the next round of consultation
to the final one before pulling together the final plan which would be
submitted to the Council and for Independent examination.
As before if anyone would like to
help please let us know.
