Colchester Council Local Plan Committee Meeting, 30 June 2014

I attended this meeting. The main issues that I feel are relevant to this campaign are:

1) Stanway Neighbourhood Plan

Stanway Parish Council is developing a Neighbourhood Plan and has agreed an area of Colchester to be covered by the plan.

Their plan is not directly relevant, but of interest, because Neighbourhood Plans are helpful for the area concerned within the planning process.

I am not sure, though, if a Neighbourhood Plan could be developed now for the proposed 'Colchester Fringe' area, because there is no neighbourhood there at the moment! That point might be checked, though.

I have added a new item to the CHEAG Project List regarding a possible Neighbourhood Plan, see the previous blog post.

2) Colchester Local Plan Focussed Review

The recent Colchester Local Plan Focussed Review, with the Planning Inspector's modifications, is to be recommended to be adopted by Colchester Council.

3) New Colchester Local Plan

There is to be a new full review of the Colchester Local Plan, with work on this already started.

This will include a 'call for sites', probably in July 2014. Proposed sites will then be subject to the normal council review process before being accepted for development.

It is proposed that the new plan will be adopted in 2016/2017.

4) Community Infrasturecture Levy

It appears that the 'Community Infrastructure Levy', paid by developers when developing new homes, will be of more benefit to areas with a local neighbourhood plan:

"The Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) has previously announced that town and parish councils that draw up neighbourhood plans will receive 25 per cent of the planning levy charged on new developments in their area. Neighbourhoods without a neighbourhood plan but where CIL is being charged will receive a 15 per cent share of the revenue from development in their area, but this will be capped at £100 per council tax dwelling."
(From Agenda Item 12 from the meeting: 'Community Infrastructure Levy', section 4.22.)

Regards
James
Colchester East Action Group (CHEAG)