A monthly round up of news and events provided by Ashington Parish Council.
Neighbourhood Plan update
The Neighbourhood Plan is still in Regulation 14 consultation stage. This ends on 17th August 2019 at midnight. After this, all of the responses will be analysed and the draft Plan reviewed and amended where necessary. You may recall that there were 26 sites submitted in 2017 for consideration in the Neighbourhood Plan and only 3 have been shortlisted for inclusion.
Site selection has been by far the hardest part of the project but the Steering Group, assisted by a planning consultant, have assessed every site in detail, set a spatial strategy for the village involving building new houses around the community facilities that residents rely on eg school, recreation ground, church, scouts, youth club, sports pitches, community centre. This will enable new residents to walk/cycle to facilities rather than having to drive – this is sustainable development. Choosing sites away from these facilities would mean more cars driving children to school, clubs etc and lead to more congestion around Church Lane/Foster Lane.
The sites chosen will also deliver new community facilities alongside the existing ones and not much further away. The Neighbourhood Plan is trying to avoid having facilities and houses dotted around the periphery of the village and in places where residents would have to drive everywhere or in places that are unsafe for our children to walk/cycle to. In addition, the sites chosen can deliver a scheme that helps alleviate flooding in Mill Lane – this would benefit residents of Mill Lane, Mill Mead, Brookside etc that all get stranded in their homes when Mill Lane floods.
Those sites that have not been chosen in the Neighbourhood Plan will still seek to gain permission to build, either by objecting to the Neighbourhood Plan or through Horsham District Council strategic site allocations policies. Gaining planning permission significantly increases the value of any piece of land.
Please visit our Facebook page ‘Ashington Parish Council’ and website www.ashingtonpc.org.uk for up to date news on village issues.
Karen Dare Parish Clerk – clerk@ashingtonpc.org.uk 07851 009655.
