A Neighbourhood Plan is a way for communities, in this case Elmstead Parish Council, to take a proactive approach to deciding the future of the places where they live and work. Once ‘made’ (adopted) a Neighbourhood Plan has the same legal status as the district wide Local Plan and will be used alongside the Local Plan in deciding planning applications that fall within its area.
Neighbourhood Development Orders (NDOs) grant planning permission for specific development in a particular area. This could include things like specified changes of use, certain kinds of alteration or the reinstatement of historical features. An NDO could be used to grant outline planning permission for specified uses on allocated sites, such as housing, commercial uses or recreational uses.
At the Public hearing the Examiner recommended a number of actions to be undertaken. Progress on each of these actions is noted below each one.
Action - Oneill Homer to summarise the criteria used for drawing of the settlement boundary. This has already been sent to me by Leani Haim and I attach it and would ask that it goes on the TDC website but I am not inviting comments on the criteria used.
Progress – This has been submitted to the Examiner. See link below:
Elmstead NP Settlement boundary criteria doc
Action - Arti O’leary from Lawson Planning would send the Council a plan of their client’s land on the north side of Clacton Road that they wish to see included within the settlement boundary. When it arrives would you send it to me and copy it to the Parish Council and also put it on the website . Again I am not inviting comments on it.
Progress – This has now been submitted, see attachment below:
FINAL_LPP337_LandNorthofClactonRoad
Action - TDC to write to all persons who offered comments at Reg 16 in respect of the NP and also the parties who commented on the NDO under Reg 23 offering them an opportunity to comment on whether the recent changes to the NPPF issued on 19th December 2023 changed their comments on the plan. Can the responses go to you and you copy in the Parish Council and post them on the website maybe under a heading Post Hearing Matters. I would not expect to receive many comments but I think it is fair to offer them the opportunity. You can put the Parish Council’s comments on the website as it was submitted before the hearing. Maybe give them 3 weeks to respond rather than 2 weeks.
Progress – The Council have sent emails and letters to all those who wrote to us during Reg 16 and 23 for three weeks which started on the 6th of March and closes on the 27th March.
The Parish Council’s comments were submitted prior to the Public Hearing and can be found at the below link:
Elmstead NP_NDO Response to 2023 NPPF
Action - TDC to write to to the 3 statutory bodies in respect of the Place Services Draft Screening Report dated November 2021 asking whether they agree with the conclusions. Then TDC to confirm its formal Screening Determination when it receives the comments . Again this should go on the website . The Regs say they should be given” a sufficient period to give them an effective opportunity to give their views". I agree 4 weeks should be sufficient. Natural England should be specifically requested to state whether they agree with the HRA screening of the NP in the report.
Progress - The consultation for the three statutory consultation bodies regarding the HRA/SEA for the Plan started on the 28th February and runs to the 27th March. Once responses have been received the Council will consider what decision must be made.
Action - in terms of the NDO, that also needs to be formally screened by TDC under the EIA Regs. It also needs to be formally screened under the Habitat Regs which includes consultation with Natural England. It may well be that the Essex Coast Recreational Disturbance and Mitigation Strategy (RAMS) Habitat Regulation Assessment Record is the assumed to be that process, both by screening in the NDO and also the Appropriate Assessment but again that needs to be formally put to Natural England and then a formal decision produced in terms of Regulation 81 of the Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations 2017.
Progress – This work is under way and a formal decision will be published soon.
Action - On the substance of the NDO I will not proceed with work on the NDO report until Brendan O’Neill prepares revised plans and proposals demonstrating how their proposed development could sit on the site and I am anticipating that needs to be agreed with TDC before it is sent to me. I am expecting it to show the maximum number of units and a mix of unit sizes commensurate with the amount of on site parking available, which can be accessed only thorough land in the Parish Council’s ownership, along with the appropriate amount and standard of amenity space appropriate for the size of units being promoted. I will then decide how to proceed and whether it requires additional consultation .
Progress – This work is underway, an amended scheme will be agreed in due course.
On the 2ndof January 2024 the Examiner made the decision that a Public Hearing will be required to address those matters raised by the Parish and District Councils in their response to the Examiner’s Initial Comments.
A date and location for the hearing has not yet been agreed by all parties, but the Examiner has provided a note of ‘Additional Comments of the Independent Examiner’.
Additional comments of the Independent Examiner
A public hearing has been announced for 10:00 on Thursday 8thFebruary 2024 at The Community Centre, School Road, Elmstead Market, CO7 7ET.
The hearing is open to the public to attend; however, the conduct of a neighbourhood plan hearings, is to be as set out in Schedule 4B to the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 and that specifies the parties who can participate. The legislation specifically provides for oral representations at the hearing to be made by the Qualifying Body, namely Elmstead Parish Council and the Local Planning Authority, Tendring District Council.
More details including who will be invited and a draft agenda within the examiner's 'Notice of Public Hearing' document below:
An Independent Examiner: Mr John Slater BA(Hons) DMS MRTPI FRGS was appointed by Tendring District Council to examine both the Neighbourhood Plan and NDO on the 22ndSeptember 2023. The Independent Examination of the Neighbourhood Plan and NDO started on the 9th November and the Examiner visited the Parish on the 23rd November. The Examiner submitted his initial comments on the Neighbourhood Plan and NDO to the District and Parish Council on the 27thNovember. These are fact finding and procedural matters in the whole for the two Councils to answer. The Examiner has given both parties until the 15thDecember to respond.
Initial comments of the Independent Examiner
The Parish Council and District Council have now submitted separate responses to the Examiner’s initial questions. These can be found below.
Tendring District Council response
Elmstead Parish Council response
A six-week public consultation was run on the Neighbourhood Plan and NDO from 18thSeptember to 30th October 2023. Interested parties could view and comment on the Neighbourhood Plan at the below link:
And the NDO via Public Access by entering application number: 23/00991/NDO at the below link:
No further comments can be received as the consultation is now closed.
Elmstead Market Parish Council submitted an area application to the District Council to begin their Neighbourhood Plan in late 2020. The Area application indicated that the Parish Council intended to designate the entire Parish as their Neighbourhood Plan Area.
The designation of Neighbourhood Plan Areas (the first stage in preparing a Neighbourhood Development Plan) was until quite recently a decision that only the Planning Policy and Local Plan Committee could make. However, at Cabinet meeting in July 2020 a report was agreed that allows the Corporate Director for Economy and Place, with the endorsement of the Leader of the Council, to make such decisions.
The regulations that relate to the making of a Neighbourhood Plan Area state:
An application must be made by a parish or town council, neighbourhood forum or a prospective neighbourhood forum (or a community organisation in the case of a Community Right to Build Order) to the local planning authority for a neighbourhood area to be designated (see regulation 5 of the Neighbourhood Planning (General) Regulations 2012 (as amended). This must include a statement explaining why the proposed neighbourhood area is an appropriate area.
A local planning authority must determine the application within certain timescales.
The 2012 Regulations state:
Application for designation of a neighbourhood area
5.—(1) Where a relevant body(1) submits an area application to the local planning authority it must include—
(a)a map which identifies the area to which the area application relates;
(b)a statement explaining why this area is considered appropriate to be designated as a neighbourhood area; and
(c)a statement that the organisation or body making the area application is a relevant body for the purposes of section 61G of the 1990 Act.
(2) A local planning authority may decline to consider an area application if the relevant body has already made an area application and a decision has not yet been made on that application.
The justification the Parish Council have submitted is copied below.
Elmstead Parish Council resolved at our last Parish Council Meeting on the 16th July 2020 to begin the process of developing a Neighbourhood Plan. Please treat this email as our application for the whole of the Elmstead Parish to be designated as a Neighbourhood Area.
Elmstead Parish Council is a relevant body to make this application for the purposes of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 Section 61G.
We consider that it is appropriate for the whole of Elmstead Parish to be designated. We do not consider it is practical to incorporate any other areas which fall within other Parishes.
We look forward to your confirmation that the Parish of Elmstead has been designated as a Neighbourhood Area together with any additional guidance which you may wish to provide. We understand that you have a relevant map showing our boundaries which you kindly offered to email us in the near future.
The District Council have provided the Parish Council with a map showing the Parish boundary.
Officers considered that the submitted information was sufficient to satisfy the 2012 Regulations and be made as an application. The Plan Area was therefore agreed by the Corporate Director for Economy and Place with the input of the Chairman of the Council on the 17th November 2020.
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