The Neighbourhood Plan Steering Group are pleased to report that the Plan has successfully passed external examination. This is a process that all neighbourhood plans have to go through before they can become part of the development plan for the area.
In May this year Daventry District Council appointed Ann Skippers Planning, an experienced consultancy from Essex, to do this work. An independent external examiner has to be someone with no personal interest in the area of the plan. The examination was carried out by written representations and Ann Skippers made an independent visit to the area in September.
The plan is published on this website.
The purpose of the examination is to check that the Plan has been drawn up in an appropriate way, that local people, businesses and statutory bodies have been consulted and that it meets the national planning conditions. The examiner has confirmed that this is the case. This means that all 13 of the policies that arose from the discussions held across the parish over four years will go forward. The report recommends changes to the wording of some of the policies. We will work with DDC on this.
It was very pleasing that the examiner understood the thinking behind our plan and recognised the desire that has arisen in the parish for the policies such as preventing coalescence with Daventry. It was particularly rewarding to read the positive comments about our well-defined vision in seeking to reinforce the distinctiveness of Braunston. We appreciated the description of our approach to community engagement as ‘exemplary’ and the presentation of our plan as ‘refreshingly straightforward’.
We are now on target for a community referendum in early 2017.