Neighbourhood Plan
Presenting the council’s neighbourhood plan status and documents.
Made Neighbourhood Plan
“The made Neighbourhood Plan is also available in hard copy at the village Library and electronically at the website of West Oxfordshire District Council:
https://www.westoxon.gov.uk/media/g4okpjtt/milton-under-wychwood-neighbourhood-plan-made-26062023.pdf
History of development of the Neighbourhood Plan
The Neighbourhood Plan (NP) is the most important land use planning project Milton-under- Wychwood (MuW) has ever undertaken. Having passed examination, achieved successful local support through referendum and been formally ‘made’ by the Local Planning Authority (LPA) on 26th June 2023, the NP forms part of the statutory ‘development plan’ used by the LPA in deciding planning applications.
In September 2016 Milton-under-Wychwood Parish Council (PC) decided to consider developing a NP for the whole parish. Consultation with all parish households on the need for a NP began with a preliminary survey questionnaire in early 2017. As there was an overwhelmingly positive response, the PC decided to prepare a NP and appointed a NP Steering Group (NPSG) to lead the work. The Group’s team of six, included two parish councillors and four local volunteers.
Community First Oxfordshire (CFO), a charity based near Witney, provided specialist local planning guidance and support for development of the Plan up to completion.
The planning process was formally launched at Milton Village Hall on 2nd December 2017 where parishioners lodged their opinions on major themes relevant to Neighbourhood Planning. To deepen the process, the Parish Council commissioned an in-depth community-wide ‘Grand Survey’ and a supplementary ‘Young Peoples’ Survey in March 2018. The response, at 65% of all households, was outstanding for this type of consultation. The analysis of responses was undertaken by CFO which provided two Reports which were adopted by the Parish Council at its meeting on 19th September 2018. Two public consultation events were held to present and receive feedback on the Survey results.
In conjunction with the community surveys, the NPSG (assisted by CFO) carried out a SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) of the parish, using feedback from earlier community consultations, and used this to draft a set of Vision and Objectives (V&O). These documents contributed to the development of an evidence-based draft NP and Appendices that were available for review by all residents of the parish who gave their feedback either at a Public Consultation Meeting on 11th September 2021, by email or by completing a Feedback Form. Hard copies of the draft Plan and Appendices were available at the Public Consultation Meeting, and at the community library before and afterwards. Other people with difficulties in accessing the documentation were invited to contact the NPSG for help. This first period of consultation on the draft plan ended on 25th September 2021.
Responses to this consultation were mostly very positive. Many useful comments and suggestions were made, all carefully considered by the Steering Group. A summary of the feedback received was published on the NP area of the PC website. In response to this consultation, changes were made to the main text of the draft Plan and the Appendices.
The revised draft Plan and Appendices were approved by the Parish Council on 17th November 2021 prior to submission for formal review by various statutory bodies. This formal review stage, under what is called “Regulation 14”, also provided another opportunity for members of the public to make suggestions and express their views. From 6th December 2021 the revised draft Plan and Appendices were available on the PC website and in hard copies at the community library. The Consultation ran for six weeks to 20th January 2022. All the parish’s households, businesses, clubs and societies were
leafletted by 6th December with a Response Form and an electronic fillable Form was available on the PC website.
The Steering Group recorded and examined every response, conducted further research where necessary, made appropriate changes to documentation and assembled all the documentation and a supporting Consultation Statement ready for submission to the LPA, i.e. West Oxfordshire District Council (WODC).
The proposed Neighbourhood Plan and 12 supporting Appendices were submitted by the Parish Council to WODC on 2nd September 2022. On the same day the Basic Conditions Statement, Consultation Statement and 11 Appendices to the Consultation Statement were also submitted. All the documentation was processed by WODC under “Regulation 16”. This stage included statutory consultation over a period of six weeks, vetting and Independent Examination that was concluded in early 2023.
A modified version of the NP was duly prepared by WODC to comply with decisions from the Examination. The public Referendum for the Plan was organised by WODC on June 22nd 2023 and 92% of votes cast supported the Plan. The NP was ‘made’ by WODC on 26th June 2023, when the Policies of the NP became legally enforceable to complement the WODC Local Plan 2031. The PC is also obliged to monitor the implementation of the NP which will be reviewed at certain points over the next few years.
The £17,500 cost of developing the NP was met as to 57% from the ‘Locality’ grant arm of central Government’s Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities and the remaining 43%, i.e. £7,600, came from the PC.