Neighbourhood Plan – Examiner’s Report

Following on from last week’s post, the Examiner’s Report received on 17th January and concluding the Examination of the Neighbourhood Plan, has now been published on Broxtowe’s website here, and is also linked through from our website Plan page.

The next step of the process is for the Council’s Cabinet to receive and consider the report at its meeting on 6th February, and if no issues raised recommend that the Neighbourhood Plan can move forward to Local Referendum for approval by the community the Forum serves. The agenda and papers for this meeting will appear on this page next week, and there is also a link to watch a live stream of the proceedings from 6pm.

However before the Referendum can proceed, the Neighbourhood Plan will need to be fully updated following the Examiner’s recommendations on the proposed amendments put forward, and be in its final version along with any other supporting documents. This inevitably will take a bit of time, but we aim to start this process next week.

Although dependent on the outcome of the Cabinet meeting, we are aiming to be ready for Broxtowe to be able to hold the Local Referendum on 2nd May, the same date as the County Council and Combined Authority Mayoral elections. This should ensure a good turnout as opposed to going ahead on its own.

Following the meeting on 6th February, we should have a better idea of the timeline for the remaining steps to adoption of the Neighbourhood Plan. It has been a lengthy eight years in the making, and it doesn’t seem possible that we started this journey in 2016, but we did!! We have all travelled a long and winding road (to quote Lennon & McCartney) and we’re looking forward to reaching the end, for a bit of a rest, at least for a while!

As always please do feel free to ask any questions you may have on this week’s latest bulletin or anything else via the Contact Us page, and we’ll do our best to answer them via the Questions and Answers page.

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Toton Battery Storage

We have received a notification from Broxtowe that an appeal has been launched against the Planning Committee’s decision to reject this application 22/00799/FUL for a Battery Energy Storage System at Southfields Farm, Common Lane in Bramcote, which is in the Green Belt. Although this lies outside the Forum Area it would nevertheless impact residents in Chilwell as well as Bramcote.

At the time of the original application the Forum submitted a representation opposing this development, and fully supported the decision to reject it. We do of course support battery energy storage, but this proposed location in the Green Belt rather than for example in the Toton Strategic Location for Growth (SLG), close or adjacent to the existing electricity sub-station on Toton Lane, doesn’t make any sense. The SLG is, as you will be aware, no longer in the Green Belt, and already ear marked for major development.

As an appeal has now been lodged with the Secretary of State by the developer (Toton Battery Storage Ltd.), the Steering Group will now review this and provide a further representation to the Planning Inspector.

As always in these cases, the more responses the better. See the notification letter 240126 Battery Storage Appeal (with personal details removed) for how to do so by 27th February.

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What Is Happening With The Neighbourhood Plan?

To answer this question, here is a recap of the past 12 months or so:-

The submission version of the Plan underwent Independent Examination in November 2022. Following the hearing, the Examiner requested substantial changes to sections of the Plan, in particular following the publication of the Government’s Integrated Rail Plan (i.e. that there would no longer be a HS2 station at Toton), but also taking into account the various representations made prior to, and at, the hearing.

Members of the Steering Group worked closely with the Broxtowe Planning team (with support from a Locality appointed consultant) to make the necessary proposed modifications to the Plan. Following a lot of time & effort by all concerned, these modifications were submitted to the Examiner in March 2023. Due to the significant update to the Plan that would result from this, she requested a further ‘Limited & Focussed Consultation’ on the proposed modifications only. Due to the local elections last May in Broxtowe and the period of purdah surrounding this, the limited consultation was held over until the summer and concluded in early September 2023.

The representations received were sent to the Examiner at the end of that month, following review by the Forum and Broxtowe. Unfortunately, due to her other work commitments and schedule, she was unable to review these until December. This timeline is provided on our website Plan page.

Just before Christmas we received a ‘Fact Check’ version of the Examiner’s report. The Forum & Broxtowe provided a combined response picking up points of accuracy & typos, together with a small number of points for clarification. This was submitted to the Examiner last Monday 15th and we are pleased to say that the corrected version came back quickly on Wednesday 17th, which concludes the Examination of the Neighbourhood Plan.

However, we are unable to publish it here just yet until we have been given the green light by Broxtowe and/or it has been published on their website, because as the Local Planning Authority, Broxtowe control the process. Having said that we expect to receive permission to make the Examiner’s Report public next week, so by this time next weekend it should be with you.

As always please do feel free to ask any questions you may have on this week’s latest bulletin or anything else via the Contact Us page, and we’ll do our best to answer them via the Questions and Answers page.

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Toton Fields

We have been asked by Councillor Teresa Cullen (Ward Councillor for Toton & Chilwell Meadows and current Broxtowe Mayor) to provide the following update in relation to controlling the Oak Processionary Moth, that you may remember caused a lot of concern last year.

Last summer there was a positive sighting of Oak Processionary Moth Caterpillars at Toton Fields, off Banks Road in Toton. The Forestry Commission sprayed insecticide on to the infected tree to deal with the infestation. No further nests were identified during the summer period.  

However, the Forestry Commission has recently written to the Council to say that they are planning to undertake further control measures in and around the tree that they identified as affected. At Toton Fields, the Forestry Commission have identified five Oak trees, that are over 15 metres in height, that were in close proximity to the initial infected tree, that they would like to crown prune. These works are due to take place in January and February this year, and the Forestry Commission will inform the Council, when they have an exact date.

We are grateful to Cllr Cullen for providing this advance notice and explanation to hopefully avoid any consternation when the works start (as has happened previously without any warning e.g. around the power lines). Once we have been provided with the dates, we will update this post.

For more information about the Oak Processionary Moth, and what to do if you spot any of its caterpillars, see this Leaflet and Poster

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Two Consultations

There are two recent consultations that you may be interested in responding to:-

1. Nottinghamshire’s Electric Vehicle Charging Strategy – see here

The link to the consultation is at the bottom of the page and is a very short survey, which closes on 12th March. The Forum’s Infrastructure Focus Group has already responded to this one on behalf of the Forum, but as always the more individual responses the better.

2. Sandiacre Parish Council (in neighbouring Erewash) has produced a Neighbourhood Plan for their parish, the Area being identical to the parish boundary. Their Regulation 16 consultation has just opened and will run until 28th February. The Plan, supporting documents and how to respond can be found here

The Forum Steering Group will review this in due course and respond as appropriate, as although not directly adjacent to our Forum Area, it is close by. Please do feel free to make individual representations in addition to the Forum’s.

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The Future Homes and Buildings Standards: 2023 Government Consultation

The government is committed to improving the energy efficiency and reducing the carbon emissions of new homes and non-domestic buildings. Energy efficiency requirements for new homes and non-domestic buildings are set by Part L (Conservation of Fuel and Power) and Part 6 of the Building Regulations 2010 (“the Building Regulations”). This consultation sets out the Government’s plans for achieving the Future Homes Standard and Future Buildings Standard. It sets out technical proposals for changes to the Building Regulations, the associated Approved Document guidance and calculation methods. It only applies to England.

These regulations (if they are approved in time) will apply to the new homes and buildings on Chetwynd Barracks and within the Toton Strategic Location for Growth.

There are a number of topics in the consultation: Heat Source (Heat Pumps and Heat Networks); Solar PV (where they offer two options with or without Solar PV); Building Fabric (which is largely unchanged from the existing Regulations). The consultation includes estimates of the increased build and running costs for the various options.

Whilst most of us are not experts in the topics being consulted upon, we are allowed to comment and these Regulations (or ones that follow) will impact the way that new homes are built in our Area.

The documents being consulted upon can be found by following this link which includes an online response form.

The questions they are consulting on are at the end (Annex B) of this page and we would recommend that (if you want to respond) you read the questions (there are 95 of them) before leaping in to the online response form.

The consultation closes on 6th March 2024

Finally, we forgot to set the notes of the recent Community Action Team meeting to be properly published. So they can be found here.

As always please do feel free to ask any questions you may have on this week’s latest bulletin or anything else via the Contact Us page, and we’ll do our best to answer them via the Questions and Answers page.

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Community Action Team Notes

Community Action Teams are your opportunity to meet with your Councillors and make your views known. Here are the notes of their recent meetings:

231120 – Attenborough & Chilwell

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Merry Christmas

The Forum Steering Group would like to wish all our members & friends a very Merry Christmas and a Happy & Peaceful New Year. We will see you all again on the other side in 2024.

We hope to have some news about the Neighbourhood Plan in January with the conclusion of the Independent Examination process.

Merry Christmas everyone!

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Neighbourhood Plan Update – 27th November 2023

We received the following update from the Examiner on the 27th November 2023

“I thought it timely to provide you with an update on your report following a meeting with Ms Kingaby last Friday. 

We reviewed the audit trail of all the documentation to date and the Examiner now has a window to make good progress with your report. You will appreciate the examination has unfortunately been extremely protracted and, as a consequence, Ms Kingaby has had other work scheduled to which she has had to adhere to the indicate programmes (in the absence of any significant issues arising). However, we recognise that you will wish to complete the examination prior to Christmas, and we very much hope to be in a position to provide you with a date for the receipt of the fact check version report shortly. 

I will update you again in the next 10 working days. ” 

Hopefully we will get an answer soon.

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Nottingham Tram Concessionary Pass Consultation

Cllr Eric Kerry has provided the Forum with the link to the very important Nottinghamshire County Council Tram Concession Consultation.

Click on the link or the picture above to make your views known. (You have to go through a number of information pages to get to the survey or if you know what its about go straight to it by following this link

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