The Neighbourhood plan has been accepted by 82% of those who voted in the referendum. EDDC will now take the plan into consideration when assessing planning decisions
Neighbourhood planning was introduced in 2012. Local communities can produce neighbourhood plans for their local areas, putting in place a vision and policies for the future development of the area. Neighbourhood plans differ from previous plans (e.g. Payhembury village plan developed in the early 2000’s) in that, once complete, a neighbourhood plan becomes a legal document carrying significant weight within the planning process.
Once the neighbourhood plan had been completed, it was submitted to the local authority (East Devon District Council in our case) and then was subjected to an independent examination. That made sure that the proper legal process had been followed and that the plan met the basic conditions, including general conformity with strategic local policy. Once the plan was deemed to have met those criteria it was put forward to a referendum of those living or working in the parish. More than 50% of those who voted needed to vote in favour for the neighbourhood plan to be adopted - the outcome of the referendum was 82% in favour.
After a significant amount of discussion and, crucially, following the completion of East Devon District Council’s Local Plan, Payhembury Parish Council decided to start the process of producing a neighbourhood plan for the parish in 2016. In areas where Parish Councils exist (such as Payhembury), it is the Parish Council who must own the plan, however others in the community can join the committee to develop the plan. The Neighbourhood Plan Committee for Payhembury was formed of Keith Williams (parish councillor), Tim Cox (parish councillor), Iestyn John and John Horrocks.
It is important to reiterate that the plan could only be finalised with the support of the community, hence the documents below which were made available through the process. If you require further information please email payhemburypc@googlemail.com
Thank you to everyone who read the consultation version of the Neighbourhood Plan during May 2018. Based on the feedback received (mostly from East Devon District Council), the plan was updated and formally submitted on September 19th 2018. It took two and a half years work for us to reach that point and we’d like to again thank those who gave up their time to get us there. The Plan then became the responsibility of East Devon District Council who started their own consultation which ran until November 30th 2018. The final post-consultation version was then available and a referendum called for 2nd May 2019.