Neighbourhood Plan Progress Update
The second stage of the Strategic Enviromnmental Asssessment (SEA) process is well underway – this is the Scoping Report. The Steering Group (SG) can expect to see a draft of this from AECOM in early April to review, prior to the statutory consultation with Natural England, Historic England, and The Environment Agency. More on this as things progress.
You may remember last time that I said the Planning Team at Broxtowe would assist us by producing a Roadmap (with indicative timescales) from where we are now through to the local referendum to adopt the Plan. Well as good as their word, we received it shortly afterwards. If you wish you can view it here Roadmap.
They have taken a cautious approach in drawing it up, to take into account ‘uncertainties’ in relation to the length of time that the SEA and Independent Examination could take. It’s possible that 2 – 3 months could be saved if these elements take a significantly shorter time. The Roadmap will be able to be updated after each stage as we make the journey towards the referendum. It also highlights some of the most significant uncertainties and elements of the process which are outside of both the Borough Council’s and Forum’s control!
As always, we will keep you updated and informed via the Digest and via the Plan page of the website. Please do feel free to ask any questions you may have via the Contact Us page, and we’ll do our best to answer them!
New Forum Address
Following the loss of the office at Oban House at the end of last year, we have been trying to find an ‘accomodation’ address to comply with legal requirements. Although we no longer need an office to work from, we do need to have a physical address. Last time I alluded that we had asked our colleagues at the council for a big favour. The outcome of which is that we now have a correspondence address at the Council Offices in Beeston. We are not expecting masses of post, but if you do need to write to us, other than by email or online, then the address should now appear at the bottom of each Digest (fingers crossed!) and also on the Contact Us page of the website. Another big thank you to Broxtowe for agreeing to this as a solution to our problem.
Greater Nottingham Strategic Plan Consultation
Just a reminder that if you are intending to submit any comments to this consultation, then the deadline is this coming Wednesday 24th March. The Steering Group is currently finalising its response, so unfortunately we can’t share it in time for you to adapt for your own responses, but we will do so after the event so you can see our thoughts. It’s quite a lengthy consultation, hence it has taken some time to pull the response together! If you are intending to comment on it then you can find the information on the GNSP Consultation website. Essentially it is a review of the Aligned Core Strategy or Part 1 of the Local Plan which was adopted in 2014 and now due for review.
David, SG Vice Chair