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[npadmin]

[RobertinKnebworth]

Hello,
As my Username indicates I’m Robert working on the Neighbourhood plan in the village of Knebworth, Hertfordshire. My subject area is Housing. I’ve looked at a lot of Neighbourhood plans online and have been somewhat disappointed by the lack of ambition in them.

Our Local plan, which is currently in front of the Inspector, presents us with between 650 and 700 additional dwellings-about a 33% increase.

The Neighbourhood plan appears to be a great opportunity to produce a plan appropriate for the needs created by the demographic and environmental trends.

[RobertinKnebworth]

This forum appears to have 6 topics and no opportunity to add additional ones. I don’t see one for developing Policies, which I thought was the objective of the whole exercise?

[jonathanflowers]

I’m Jonathan Flowers, I’m a community representative on the Steering Group for the Harpenden Neighbourhood Plan, in Hertfordshire. Our plan is developed and moving through examination and I am starting to think ahead to the Referendum – I’m interested in hearing from others how they have successfully campaigned locally. The Town Council played a key role in making the plan happen but they are very constrained in the referendum so we are going to be mobilising community help and support for the referendum. Very open to any tips!

[RobertinKnebworth]

Jonathan I encountered your colleague Shusheel at a Sustainability event last week and subsequently looked at Harpenden’s Neighbourhhod Plan.

I had been sad for those working on other Neighbourhood plans, putting in a lot of effort but who don’t appear to have taken advantage of the excellent opportunity to improve their localities, and was determined that Knebworth’s should. I’ve looked through the Harpenden Neighbourhhod Plan and am most impressed! Harpenden has a LOT of policies and have taken Sustainability VERY seriously:-)

[RobertinKnebworth]

For anyone looking at Retail / High street I recommend listening to yesterday’s Moneybox programme on Radio 4. Harpenden gets a mention.

[Becky Plan-ET]

Hi,
I’m Becky, I am a Neighbourhood Planning Consultant. We are currently working with Nieghbourhood Plan steering groups from Devon to Cumbria.

[RobertinKnebworth]

Becky,
I’m looking for Housing policies, particularly successful ones. Have you got any good examples?

Thanks in advance.

[edg]

Hi All, I am Ed Greenwood and I am the Treasurer of our Neighbourhood Planning Committee. The primary aim of our NHP is the regenration of our area. The area has had little investment from local government and is currently suffering from gridlocked traffic flows. Whilst there is a plan to alleviate the traffic between the nearest major towns we are not convinced that it will be beneficial to us. We do not have a great deal of space for housing and have actually brought about a reduction in planned housing due the impending Local Plan which targeted Green Belt reduction.

[RobertinKnebworth]

@Jonathan I encountered your colleague Shusheel at a Sustainability event last week and subsequently looked at Harpenden’s Neighbourhhod Plan.

I had been sad for those working on other Neighbourhood plans, putting in a lot of effort but who don’t appear to have taken advantage of the excellent opportunity to improve their localities, and was determined that Knebworth’s should. I’ve looked through the Harpenden Neighbourhhod Plan and am most impressed! Harpenden has a LOT of policies and have taken Sustainability VERY seriously:-)

[RobertinKnebworth]

Sorry about the duplication, but I can’t see how to delete this one.

[ngreen]

Hi my name is Nik Green and I am a Policy Officer at Leicestershire County Council. We provide a support network for groups in Leicestershire and have a dedicated website with information, support, advice, copies of NPs in Leicestershire and links to individual groups’ website were they have them. Please feel free to have a look round and see what groups are producing in Leicestershire – Leicestershire Neighbourhood Planning Network

[RobertinKnebworth]

Nik,
Your website helpfully led me to the Center for Sustainable Energy website and their free documents.

The forward to their guidebook, written by the Town and COuntry planning association,says:

The changes we will all experience as a result of climate change mean that any plan made now that does not consider
climate change and energy as central themes will simply not be fit for purpose. Despite their
popularity, recent research has shown that the overwhelming majority of plans already adopted
simply do not consider these issues in any meaningful sense. Neighbourhood plans will be in force
for 15-20 years. If they are to successfully help communities deal with the future we will actually
experience, they must move away from the narrow focus on accommodating housing that has
blighted local planning in general, and move to an approach that plans for resilient, sustainable
communities in a genuinely holistic sense.

[ngreen]

Robert, What type of housing policies were you particularly interested in?

[RobertinKnebworth]

Thanks Nik.
Our village is schedule to receive 3 sites of around 200 homes each. So as well as needing a mixture of sizes in each site the community facilities need to be appropriate. Two of the sites are a significant distance from the Village centre up a hill, with one road dividing them, so probably need their own community meeting place(s) for coffee, etc.

Policies base on ‘Lifetime homes’ would be valuable.

I don’t see any point in them having garages as no one puts a car in a garage. But obviously they’ll need Electric charging points.

I understand that Gas central heating is now passed it’s ‘Use by date’ and renewable electricity is the future.

Any assistance with relevant polices used in Neighbourhood plans would be appreciated, thanks

[ngreen]

We have a member of the Centre for Sustainable Energy coming along to talk to the Leicestershire Neighbourhood Planning Network about Low Carbon Neighbourhood Planning at our next meeting. A copy of their presentation will be available via our website by the end of the May 2018.

[ngreen]

Robert it might be worth checking to see if you are eligible for Low Carbon Neighbourhood Planning support as if you qualify they can assist you with policy writing etc and the cost would be covered their grant. Also worth looking at policies that provide for good links into centre and other amenities; cycleways, footpaths etc. We are also looking at what support/advice we can offer regarding Lifetime Homes and policies for these. When we have further details I will be posting some info on our website.

[LindaP]

Hi I’m LindaP and Chair of piertalk.com, a non profit making community group offering a wide range of social events for the residents of Southend. At the moment we don’t have any premises and to solve this I would like to open a Cat Cafe which would be a community based social enterprise. We don’t have any money and having looked at this site I am really interested in forming a Co-operative. The Cat Cafe would prove to be an attraction for Southend (they are up and coming businesses); we would also have another cafe for members of the public and hopefully a community lounge which could be used for poertalk events such as quizzes, Scrabble. Book Club – which we currently run around venues in Southend and also hired out to other community groups.

If anyone has any input or views on this idea I would love to hear from them.

[ngreen]

Hi Linda, We have some case studies of people that have done a similar thing here in Leicestershire. These are available to view on our website at Leicestershire Communities

[HTVF]

Hi all, we are the Historic Towns and Villages Forum and we are running a seminar on Tues 26th February 2019 in Oxford, which will look at innovative housing policies and for other uses. Taking the opportunity to set high standards and ambitions in a NP is hard work, but well worth it whether in places designating land for a very small number of homes, or major allocations to shape existing developer interest. More information is available at: http://www.htvf.org/page/ with tickets from https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/neighbourhood-planning-what-its-achieving-and-how-tickets-52210943337
If you miss this one and would welcome some practical advice and an opportunity to see how others would respond, please let us know as we can address it in forthcoming events or a response from one of our experts.
Thanks.

[Author]

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