The Steps to an Adopted Plan
Formed late in 2017 the Neighbourhood Plan Steering Group is made up of volunteer residents from the parish, including Parish Councillors. It established a vision and objectives for the Neighbourhood Plan and established an overarching aim to “to preserve the character and sustainability of our semi-rural parish”. They have collected much background information on relevant planning policy, potential residential and commercial developments, census data etc. and feedback from residents on their current likes and dislikes concerning the parish. Analysis of this evidence has enabled the preparation of an outline plan which was used to guide the drafting of surveys for parish residents and other stakeholders. These surveys were in the form of paper and online questionnaires and were conducted in the autumn/winter of 2019/20. There was a good response to all the surveys. Links to the summaries of the surveys’ results can be found in the Supporting Documents and Evidence section of the Documents page, and to the summaries of the residents questionnaire results at community area level on each community’s page. As a reminder the Laverstock and Ford Parish is made up of four community areas: Laverstock and Milford; Bishopdown Farm/Hampton Park/Riverdown Park; Ford; and Old Sarum/Longhedge. Detailed analysis of these survey responses enabled a draft neighbourhood plan to be written, and also input to be given to Wiltshire Council in the drafting of their emerging Local Plan, which reflects residents’ and other stakeholders’ views. Following approval by the Parish Council, the draft neighbourhood plan was published for residents’ and other stakeholders’ comments between May 10th and July 2nd 2021, and virtual Q&A sessions were held on Zoom. All comments received were then reviewed and any necessary amendments made to the draft plan and appendices. The amended documents were agreed by the Steering Group and adopted by the Parish Council in December 2021.
These versions of the Draft Plan and appendices were sent to Wiltshire Council in January 2022 to commence the examination process. These were accompanied by two further documents, one detailing the consultations which have supported their preparation (the Consultation Statement) and another showing that the policies in the Plan are consistent with national and Wiltshire council planning policies and neighbourhood planning legislation (the Basic Conditions Statement). Wiltshire Council indicated that the documents met the requirements to go forward to examination. The first step in this process was a further (Regulation 16) public consultation during which any further comments could be submitted to Wiltshire Council. This was completed in April 2022. The draft Neighbourhood Plan, alongside any comments received during the consultations, was then examined by an independent inspector to check the draft Plan for legal compliance. The examiner produced a report for Wiltshire Council which subsequently issued a Decision Statement to Proceed to Referendum. This identified a number of changes that were required to be made to our draft Plan. These were carried out to produce a final version of the Plan and a referendum on its adoption was held in the parish by Wiltshire Council in October 2022. There was a majority in favour of the Neighbourhood Plan resulting in it being adopted by Wiltshire Council which means that it must be considered and given full weight in any planning decision which affects the parish.
The Neighbourhood Plan
All relevant documents are on the Documents tab. The final version of the plan adopted by Wiltshire Council is that marked as the Made Version in Section 1.