West Bergholt Neighbourhood Plan, WELCOME. Introduction This exhibition explains the progress being made with producing a Neighbourhood Plan for our area, and we seek your views before developing the plan further. The more feedback we receive the better the plan will be. On the boards that follow you will find ideas or thoughts about every aspect of village and parish life from sport to transport. What this means for where we live and work Our village and parish has changed greatly over the past 50 years and further changes can be expected. Changes will affect the countryside, housing levels, where people can work locally, the shops and amenities on offer and the quality of the environment. We could leave all change to chance or to local councils, or we could shape our destiny together as a community. Without a plan in place the shape and fabric of our built and natural environment is uncertain. What may be attractive today may be degraded in the future without a plan to help us. What this means for our community Our community consists of a mix of people of all ages. How do we ensure that we all have the opportunity to enjoy our environment, have access to services and have a say in the future? How do we try to enable a balanced mix of younger and older age groups, and that the amenities we enjoy are relevant to future generations? Decisions we make now directly affect our lives and those of our children and those who may live in the parish in the future.
West Bergholt Neighbourhood Plan, BACKGROUND. What is a Neighbourhood Plan? Neighbourhood Plans (hereinafter referred to as NPs) were introduced by Government in the Localism Act 2011. They allow for communities to shape development in their area. Neighbourhood Plans will become part of the Borough, District or Unitary Local Development Plans and the policies contained within them will be used in the determination of planning applications and types of development. NPs are being produced all over the country with several elsewhere in Essex Who is producing the plan? The plan is community-led but affiliated to the Parish Council who acts as its sponsor. The NP area has been agreed by Colchester Borough Council following public consultation. A village workshop was held in November 2012 and interested residents in attendance met further and subsequently convened the Neighbourhood Plan Steering Group. Members of the Steering Group are both residents and business owners within West Bergholt who value the opportunity to have a say in the future shape and development of their village. The steering group is presently undertaking the following work: • Communications , to ensure residents know about the process • Evidence gathering , to make sure our plan is based on fact and logic • Project planning , to ensure we meet all the statutory processes • Report drafting , to enable the plan to be understood At present there are around 20 members of the group roughly split into ten actively involved in preparing the plan with a further ten acting in a supporting role, reviewing ideas and acting as a sounding board. A good deal of material is on www.westbergholt.net/neighbourhoodplan
West Bergholt Neighbourhood Plan, WHAT WILL BE IN THE PLAN?. What do Neighbourhood Plans contain? Neighbourhood Plans can take many forms but they must include the following: • Proposals and policies covering land use • Plans for development, be these for housing or employment or for sporting or recreational areas Plans may also contain: • Ideas for projects that a community may wish to see undertaken What will ours look like? We intend to follow our successful Parish Plan format tempered with the statutory needs of the NP to produce a short document with the following chapters: • Introduction & Background (1 page). • Vision and Objectives (2 pages). • Sustainable Growth for the Whole Community (2 pages). • Strategy, including options (5 pages). • Housing and Planning (4 pages). • Employment (2 pages). • Policies will be interspersed • Amenities (2 pages). throughout the document and • Sport & Recreation (2 pages). repeated as an appendix. • Environment (4 pages). • Evidence used as required in the • Social & Community (2 pages). plan. • Community Safety (2 pages). • Each chapter will include a • Transport and Highways (2 pages). planning and a projects aspect. • Communications (1 page). • Delivering the Plan (2 pages). • Our Evidence in appendix form.
West Bergholt Neighbourhood Plan. PARISH PORTRAIT Introduction This board looks at our parish and village and summarises what we know about the community and its setting in numbers. Looking at the past may not dictate the future but it aids an understanding of our present position. The Setting • The parish is 1,034 hectares in size • It has 1,364 dwellings • It contains one large village and small clusters of other houses, farms and commercial premises • It is bordered by similar parishes to the north, east and west and by Colchester town to the south • The village has a large primary school (over 400 pupil placements) catering for students both inside and outside the parish • It has one B class road leading to Colchester and Sudbury and the remaining roads are unclassified The Community and its characteristics • 3,344 people live in the parish, 687 are aged 16 or less; 747 are aged 65 or over. • 2,845 people live in owner occupied properties with the remainder in a variety of private or social rented properties • 1,668 people are in employment • Of those in employment 70% drive to work or are passengers in a car • 15% of people class themselves as in poor or very poor health • There are 2,000 cars registered to households in the parish
West Bergholt Neighbourhood Plan, MAPS & PLANS. Maps and Plans Maps and plans will feature prominently in our NP so it is useful to understand how these will feature. The following will be used: • Village envelope : the boundary of built development. • The NP area : the designated area covered by our NP as agreed with Colchester. Borough Council. • Environmental designations : these show areas where protection will be afforded to the built and natural environment. Examples of maps and plans Large scale plan showing village and Small scale plan showing environmental designations village envelope and NP area
West Bergholt Neighbourhood Plan. WHAT YOU’VE TOLD US SO FAR . Introduction Building on an adopted Parish Plan and Village Design Statement, further open meetings, exhibitions and questionnaires have been undertaken across the community including household, business and young peoples’ surveys. Household Survey Findings, based on 470 household returns The main aspects, achieving near unanimity, are: • Nearly all respondents wanted to protect open spaces in the village. • 95% want to maintain the identity of the village and not become a “suburb” of Colchester. • 90% of respondents generally feel safe from crime or anti-social behaviour. • 95.9% of respondents agree that residents must be able to influence the quality, pace and location of development. Young People’s thoughts, based on 133 responses • Strong participation in sports and Bergholt Youth Group (BYG). • Strong support for improving: • Places, sources of advice on wellbeing and health. • Meeting places and opportunities. • Sports facilities and more clubs. Business findings, based on 28 responses • Wide variety of small and medium sized enterprises, great potential exists. • Lack of space to expand. • Lack of space for offices, parking. • Slower than standard broadband. The effect on future proposals • Near unanimity on specific aspects will have a strong impact on the direction of future proposals. From the above, it can be deduced: • Options relating to future land use will attract great interest and involvement. • Significant resistance will be generated should changes be proposed that are considered likely to adversely affect the current feeling of community safety .
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