Blewbury Neighbourhood Plan

Updated 6 October:

We are pleased to say that the independent examiner appointed by the Vale of White Horse District Council to review our Plan has endorsed it. As expected, he has asked us to make some minor revisions but the substance of our policies remains intact. The examiner was extremely complimentary about both the village and the Plan. His report is available here.

The final text of the Plan, with the revisions requested by the examiner, is available via our documents page. We also have a version showing full details of where the text has been changed, along with explanations.

The final stage of the process will be the village referendum, organised by the Vale. This will take place on Thursday, 24 November. More information will be circulated in due course, and we will keep you informed via the Bulletin, posters, Facebook and the Bulletin’s Stop Press.

As part of the legal process, our final draft plan was open for consultation for six weeks on the Vale of White Horse District Council website. We are delighted to say that no negative comments on our proposed policies were received, and at the time of preparing this note (17 August) the Plan is about to be reviewed by an external Examiner.

The Examiner will in particular be checking that our policies are practical and do not conflict with those of the Vale or with national policy. He may require us to make some changes, but all being well this process will be completed by the end of September.

The final hurdle will be a referendum within the village. Provided we receive support for our proposal from a simple majority of those voting, the plan will be “made” and our policies will be incorporated into the planning policies of Vale.

The referendum will be organised by the Vale and we have been warned that it may not be possible for it to happen before late autumn. We will obviously press for an early referendum and keep you informed of progress via the Bulletin, this website, Facebook and the Bulletin’s stop press.

Nearly there!

The Blewbury Neighbourhood Plan Steering Group

We are currently digesting the feedback from the public consultation period as well as the responses from the statutory bodies. The feedback has been very supportive and there were some helpful, positive suggestions. Based on them, we are doing a bit of fine tuning of the Plan, but no major changes have been proposed. 

Two technical reports also need to be submitted: a summary of how the village has been consulted and a detailed description of how the Plan complies with all the legally required conditions. Work on these is well underway. 

We will submit the final plan and reports to the Vale as soon as we can. Once the Vale has agreed the Plan, they will appoint an independent inspector to carry out a review. 

If there are no unexpected problems, we hope to complete the Plan in the summer or early autumn. The final stage of the process will be a village referendum. Everyone in the village who is on the electoral roll is entitled to vote and, if the Plan is approved by a simple majority of those voting, it will be incorporated into the Vale of White Horse planning policies.

This has been a very long process, and the encouragement and understanding that we have received from the village throughout has really helped to keep us going.

The six week consultation period for the community to comment on the Neighbourhood Plan ended on 14 March. We are delighted with the feedback received. We have had over 40 comments, almost all of which are supportive of the Plan and some included helpful suggestions.

We are now waiting for the statutory bodies (like the Department of Transport) to respond – they have until the end of March to do so.

The steering group will analyse the comments and make any changes to the Plan that we think appropriate. Assuming these changes do not affect the substance of the proposed policies, we will then submit the final Plan (plus two technical reports) to the Vale. Once the Vale has agreed the Plan, they will appoint an independent inspector to carry out a review.

If all of this goes well – and there could easily be hiccups along the way – we will complete the Plan in the summer or early autumn. The final stage of the process will be a village referendum. Everyone in the village who is on the electoral roll is entitled to vote and, if the Plan is approved by a simple majority of those voting, it will be incorporated into the Vale of White Horse planning policies.

Thank you again for all the goodwill and support that we have received from the village throughout the process.

The Neighbourhood Plan Steering Group

During the six-week village consultation on the draft Neighbourhood Plan we need your comments! It will start on Monday 1st February and end on Monday  14th March 2016.

The full Plan and related materials are available on our consultation page. Printed copies of the Plan will also be available at the Post Office*, school*, pre-school*, surgery, the Melland Room at the Rec., the Benefice Centre, both pubs, Style Acre, Dibleys office* and Ladycroft Park*. You will be able to sign for the copies kept at the starred places* and borrow them for 24 hours.

Everyone in the village will have a chance to review and discuss the proposed Plan, and to offer comments and suggestions. We’ll then update the draft based on your feedback before it is submitted to the Vale of White Horse District Council to be examined.

If you possibly can, come to our public event in the Village Hall on Sunday, 7th February from 2–5 pm.
We’ll have a brief presentation of the Plan at 3 pm with open discussion. There will be posters, and time for plenty of informal questions before and after; come at any time

In the following weeks we will be holding informal events to answer your questions, explain the complex rules that the Plan has to follow, and above all listen to your opinions and suggestions. These informal events will be publicised on our website, Facebook, on posters around the village, and the Bulletin’s “Stop Press” email service.

A list of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) is available as well, with printed copies available at the places listed above. These cover common themes regarding the Plan and the process we have to go through before approval.

All comments and suggestions regarding the Plan are very welcome! Comments can be made at the public events, via our website, or by filling in a form at the Post Office.

Remember, this is your Plan and it will only be adopted if a majority agree to it in the village referendum after the Vale has examined it, so please take the time to read it and to have your say.

Posters from the Progress Meeting on Sunday 22 November 2015 

Thanks to everyone for coming out on a cold grey Sunday afternoon, and for the lively interest and discussion. Here are links to the material that was displayed:

• Outline of the contents of the draft plan (now obsolete)
• Summary of draft policies (now obsolete)
• Frequently-asked questions about the plan
• Timeline for plan approval

The full Landscape Assessment is available as three pdf files: the main report and its appendices, an interesting set of maps, and photographs illustrating the different areas that were assessed. For a quick summary start at page 11.

For the Housing Needs Survey, you can download the full results as well as a short summary of the hundreds of comments people wrote for the open-ended questions.

The Neighbourhood Plan Steering Group