October 2022

Hello everyone, with the summer holidays now well and truly behind us we thought now would be a good opportunity to update you on our progress developing the Farnham’s Neighbourhood Plan.

In our last piece for the magazine in April we spoke of Future Housing Development, the Heritage Assets we had identified, the Environment and our desire to reach out to Local Community Facilities, Services, Businesses, and our Local Shops.

So firstly, to update you on progress:

Future Housing Development: Our Housing Needs Assessment for the Farnhams Community was carried out by a Senior Town Planner from AECOM. It suggests that the need is for Starter Homes, lower cost dwellings and Shared Equity Housing, rather than more large dwellings. The Assessment believes that our older folk who don’t want to leave the area, would downsize to smaller dwellings if there were some nice ones, thus making their larger houses available. Also, that new younger families, or our own
grown up younger residents wishing to stay near family and friends, would welcome over the coming years, a very small number of dwellings in this style.

Heritage Assets: when we last wrote identifying these assets was already complete however in addition, we have now also identified several other local (non-designated) assets which we feel should be protected for the future.

The Environment: we are currently at the stage of identifying and mapping our Green Assets and potential strategies to enhance or protect those assets.

Local Community Facilities, Services, Businesses, and our Local Shops: we have reached out to many of our local businesses, shops, services, and community facilities to hear their thoughts and this feedback and data has now been collated and is ready for inclusion in the plan.

Parish Council AGM – May 2022
In May we presented and received positive feedback on the status of our work to date to the Farnham Royal Parish Council AGM attended by residents, Parish Councillors, and a member of Buckinghamshire County Council.

State of play today:
We are still some ways from completing and sharing the final plan with you the community, but we are at the stage now where we are closer to having an outline of a plan and we do have some sense of the key aspects, for instance:

Our vision is to encourage more of a “one village” feel between Farnham Royal and Farnham Common and ensure that all residents gain the most potential future benefits from our two villages. For example, at the centre of this community could there be an enhanced role for the Farnham Park Sports Facility as it is today to bring the community together in several diverse ways.

Finding more environmentally friendly ways of making it easy for residents to travel between the villages, to enjoy and make best use of local facilities, services, businesses, and shops.

Protecting the future and wherever possible enhancing our Green Assets in and around the villages.

Finding ways to support and create an aspirational High Street which encourages more local patronage and higher footfall from passing trade wherever is possible.

We want to ensure that our excellent Schools, Healthcare, and other important
facilities continue to thrive and that the key workers needed can find affordable housing in our villages to staff these facilities whilst at the same time protecting our cherished Green Belt.

Finally, and not least we want to ensure that we protect the Heritage of our villages and ensure any future development is guided by a clear Design Code which makes for an ever more pleasant place for people to live and work both now and into the future.

We anticipate that the Neighbourhood Plan should be complete by February 2023 and shared with residents’ sometime soon thereafter.

Help us to help you
We welcome your views, comments, and suggestions by responding to the
clerk@farnhamroyal-pc.gov.uk or by calling 01753 648497.

For more information on Neighbourhood Planning visit:
Step by step guide to Neighbourhood Planning
https://www.buckinghamshire.gov.uk/planning-and-building-control/planning-policy/neighbourhood-planning/the-plans