NPSG Minutes November 2024

Rupert Lyon.

The minutes of a previous meeting of the SG held on 17th October 2024 were approved for accuracy and referred to the Parish Council for adoption (proposed James Linehan, seconded Peter Thomas).

Updates were provided on actions arising as below listed:

·         The wording re: biodiversity and Local Green Spaces had been revised and completed. A list of LGS’s had been finalised.

·         A new policy on trees and hedgerows had been developed (BNP 17) and included in the Plan.

·         A new section on village aspirations had been added; Cllr Rayward reported that this had been required in order to provide a distinction between work required for future iterations of the Plan and aspirational projects for the PC to take forward. The list of aspirations would be used by the PC to inform decisions on how CIL funds would be spent.

·         It was noted that a review of the NDP would likely need to commence in 18 months’ time. confirmed not contingent.

·         Sian Morgan thanked Cllr Rayward for his formatting work.

The Chair reported that the SG members had undertaken a great amount of work since the last meeting and reports on this were given as below:

Peter Thomas spoke about the meeting he and Cllr Rayward had attended with Wiltshire Council (WC) as part of the pre-submission work.  The meeting had been very positive and gone through the principal questions WC had had in response to the Plan.  There had been a discussion on the Biodiversity Net Gain relating to Site 321; with a revision to a BNG of 21% expected to be submitted by the developer.  Some of the original BNG (26%) would therefore likely be allocated against Site G. WC would ensure its Ecology Officer reviewed this. It was noted that under the Planning Framework developers were only required to demonstrate a 10% BNG. A number of questions regarding the access arrangements to site G had been raised and it had been agreed these would be more appropriately dealt with at planning application stage as opposed to site allocation stage. WC had also expressed its preference for Site G to provide 8 dwellings however, it was noted that the developer had agreed to develop no more than 6 and had further agreed that affordable housing would be included in this number.  Peter Thomas and Cllr Rayward were thanked for attending the meeting with WC.

The Consultation Strategy document had been updated following the conclusion of the Regulation 14 consultation and document 15 contained every written response from all consultees (with names redacted),  listed so that the Examiner could easily review them. This list contained a unique identifier to show where the comment came from, the response from the SG and any changes made to the Plan as a result of the comment.  This was noted to be an important document. Policy statements had also been marked up to show where changes had been made in response to consultation comments and members would review their own sections. It was noted that all the documents relating to the Plan would be submitted to WC electronically.

Parts A and B of the Plan were now complete; there had been some changes following comments from WC, but not a significant number.

Changes to annexes – Cllr Rayward reported that Annexe 1 had now been added to the documents, although an update from Place Studio was awaited in relation to the final wording for the assessment of Site G.  The Annexe would therefore be finalised once this had been received (hopefully the following day). Outstanding sections had been highlighted on the Document Tree.

It was noted that Historic England had asked for more consideration to be given to heritage aspects (listed and scheduled monuments) and had requested that more analysis of these be included in AECOM assessment; one change had been implemented already. Some questions from WC also needed to be responded to.  The SEA would be updated in light of the final version of the policies.

Annexe 5 – completed.

Annexe 6 (previously listed as Annexe 5) Supplementary Information – had been developed and expanded in response to WC feedback; information on art and culture and a list of village clubs and societies had been added, together with the community aspirations for both. It was noted that there was some unavoidable lack of consistency between the amount of organisation information provided. It was agreed that this was something that could be addressed in future iterations of the Plan.

Recreation Ground – Cllr Rayward had included information on the strength of recreation facilities in the village and how they are funded.  Information on allotments and the Reeves Orchard had also been included and this had the advantage of essentially providing a ‘handbook’ for residents on village facilities.

The Chair confirmed that two copies of the Plan had been prepared; one marked to show the changes which had been made following the Regulation 14 consultation and one ‘clean’ copy; both would be submitted to WC with the Regulation 15 submission documents.

Policy 17 – a new policy covering trees and hedgerows had been added a result of comments received during the Regulation 14 consultation.

Annexe 5 – had been prepared by Sian Morgan and Cllr Rayward had provided the maps.  Both were thanked for their work. Sian Morgan explained that the Heritage section included information for each asset/facility/building which had listed,  containing the reasons for inclusion in the list and heritage photographs which demonstrated the historic value of each.  It was noted that future iterations of the Plan may include additional listings.

It was noted that there were additional documents required from AECOM, which would be dropped into the Document Tree when received.

Members noted that the Plan was now in very good shape for its submission to WC.

Members considered the next steps and, following the discussion in previous agenda items, resolved to recommend to the Parish Council  that the Bratton NDP be submitted to Wiltshire Council for the purposes of Regulation 15 in accordance with the Neighbourhood Planning (General) Regulations 2012 (proposed Rob Drummond, seconded Cllr Cole).

Peter Thomas reported on the next steps as listed:

·       The PC would approve documents for submission to WC Regulation 15 at the meeting scheduled for 12^th November 2024.

·         WC would then have a period of time until early January to carry out its review, following which the Plan would move to Regulation 16 consultation and Independent Examination.

·         The Plan would therefore effectively be out of the SG’s hands following the Regulation 15 submission and would be taken through the final stages by WC.

Cllr Rayward expressed his thanks to Peter Thomas for keeping the timeline on track and to all the members of the SG who had contributed so much in getting the Plan to Regulation 15 stage.

Cllr Rayward suggested that the NPSG hold a short ‘wind up’ meeting on Thursday 5^th December. It was agreed that this would be useful in case there were any comments from WC following the Regulation 15 submission which required addressing. The need for the meeting would be confirmed nearer the time.