You won’t be surprised that this weekend’s latest news post is all about the Referendum, as it will be the last one before the big day!
Polling Day (2nd May) is fast approaching so please make your vote count in the Neighbourhood Plan Referendum.
The referendum question being asked is:
“Do you want Broxtowe Borough Council to use the Neighbourhood Plan for Chetwynd: Toton and Chilwell to help it decide planning applications in the neighbourhood area?”
A vote “YES” means that you do want the Local Community views expressed in the Neighbourhood Plan Policies to help Broxtowe decide planning applications in our Neighbourhood Area.
A vote “NO” means that you don’t want the Local Community views expressed in the Neighbourhood Plan Policies to help Broxtowe decide planning applications in our Neighbourhood Area.
Whether you vote “YES” or “NO” or Abstain, developers will submit planning applications for new housing and other facilities in the Neighbourhood Area in the coming years or sooner. So it’s a question of whether Broxtowe has to use YOUR Neighbourhood Plan Policies when determining planning applications within the Forum Area, or just rely on its own policies which are not as up to date following the cancellation of HS2 (impacting the Toton SLG) and the delayed vacation of Chetwynd Barracks.
Major development will still take place at both these key strategic sites. A “Yes” vote for the Neighbourhood Plan will influence how those developments take shape and help ensure the community’s views, objectives and vision are delivered, and for the new community that will be created. A “No” vote will potentially end any significant community say in how development takes place, and make it more difficult to raise planning concerns as one coherent voice.
A Big Thank You
The Forum Steering Group would like to offer a very big thank you to all the volunteers who answered our Call to Action to assist with the referendum leaflet delivery walks. Without the help of Antoinette, Chris, Graham, Karren, Katherine, Louise, Paul and Rosemary who stepped up to the task, the Steering Group would have had a much bigger challenge to deliver the leaflets to the 6,500 homes in our Area. The volunteers doubled our capacity, and every home will have received a leaflet by the end of this weekend. If for some reason you haven’t, then you can view it by clicking on the image above.
We also need to thank our partners and other relatives who have been cajoled into helping! Most of us now know what ‘postman’s knuckle’ feels like, and one unfortunate volunteer had more than a letterbox bite their fingers, ouch!! That really is dedication to the cause.
Finally
Broxtowe Electoral Services have issued a Notice of Poll and Situation of Polling Stations, so if you are voting in person and are unsure where your polling station is, then please refer to it. Also, do remember that you will need to present your voter ID when casting your vote at a polling station.
The count for the Neighbourhood Plan Referendum will take place on Friday afternoon 3rd May, the day after polling closes. We will let you know the result as soon as we can on that day.
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.