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Neighbourhood Plan

2023 January Update on The Farnham Royal (Parish) Neighbourhood Plan

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Here is your latest update on the work being done to build a Neighbourhood Plan for the villages of Farnham Common and Farnham Royal.

At time of writing content for the plan is coming together well and as mentioned in our last update we hope to have shared some of the draft plan with residents by the time you have read this article but more about this to follow.

Since we last wrote we have completed a lot of the narrative around the pre submission plan, mapped the green infrastructure which identifies green assets across the two villages and created a sustainable travel map identifying
Bus Routes, Public Rights of Way, Long Distance Walks and Cycling Routes.

Work on creating a clear Design Code for the villages continues but the timescale for this work is still not fully clear.

In mid-December we held a briefing session for the Councils Planning Working Group to update them on the status, direction of the draft plan and its policies. This was well received, and the group recognised the good progress that has been made in recent months.

To give you some idea of the timescales still involved in the plan process we anticipate the following timeline over the first six months of 2023:

Late January 2023: Sharing draft plan polices with residents for informal consultation and feedback

April 2023: Draft Neighbourhood Plan review and prepare for formal consultation

May to July 2023: Regulation 14 consultation with Bucks Council 

During the period from late January to March 2023 we will have launched the Neighbourhood Plan webpage and Facebook page and as mentioned we will share the draft policies of the plan with residents for an informal consultation
to ensure the feedback we have received since the start of the process remains important and relevant. This will be achieved via a questionnaire on the webpage and in some instances direct mail.

The nine draft policies focus on:
HOUSING MIX AND TENURE
THE GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE NETWORK
LOCAL GREEN SPACES
DESIGN CODES
LOCAL HERITAGE ASSETS
LOCAL COMMUNITY USES AND PUBS
EARLY YEARS PROVISION
FARNHAM COMMON VILLAGE CENTRE and
SUSTAINABLE TRAVEL

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

Useful online links:
Neighbourhood Planning Buckinghamshire Council site
https://www.buckinghamshire.gov.uk/planning-and-building-control/planning-policy/neighbourhood-planning/theplans

Step by step guide to Neighbourhood Planning
https://neighbourhoodplanning.org

The Farnham’s Neighbourhood Plan 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

Farnham Royal Neighbourhood Area Application Made

This is some holding text so you can get an idea.

On the 19 July 2016, Farnham Royal Parish Council submitted an application to South Bucks District Council seeking to declare the entire Parish of Farnham Royal as a Neighbourhood Area.

South Bucks District Council consulted on the application for a period of 4 weeks from 4 August to 2 September 2016.

On 28 September 2016 the Head of Service for Sustainable Development approved Farnham Royal Parish Council’s application to declare the Parish as a Neighbourhood Area. This decision was taken following consideration of the comments received as part of the consultation, and consultation with local ward members and the portfolio holder responsible for Sustainable Development. The decision report, which contains a map of the designated area and a summary of the comments received during the consultation, is available from the ‘downloads’ at the bottom of this page.

Farnham Parish Council will now be able to produce a Neighbourhood Plan for the Neighbourhood Area, which (if made) will be used to determine planning applications in the Parish area.