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Parish Council News
Ashington Parish Council
Neighbourhood Plan update
Those of you who have been following local planning issues recently will be aware that Horsham District Council (HDC) is currently reviewing its local plan ie the number of new homes needed in the District and where they should be built. The simple facts are that: a minimum 18,409 homes are needed by 2036; sites for 9,479 have been identified already; HDC is 8,930 short; 500 potential new sites have come forward to HDC. The target for the Review to be published is late 2021. It is HDC’s responsibility to identify ‘strategic’ sites in the District ie 500+ homes and to allocate other land for development in Parishes/ areas where there is no Neighbourhood Plan. At the Parish Council meeting in October it was indicated that there are possibly no ‘strategic’ sites in Ashington (none at the time of writing) but there are many potential smaller development sites in the Parish. The Neighbourhood Plan Steering Group has been working with HDC throughout the 3 year Neighbourhood Plan project and HDC are aware of the draft Neighbourhood Plan, its policies, spatial strategy, proposed housing numbers etc and even gave it positive feedback recently at a formal ‘Healthcheck’ in 2019. HDC knows that the Neighbourhood Plan is awaiting some essential archaeological reports and has ad-
vised that this information is essential before progressing to the next stage. There is constant dialogue between HDC and the Parish to make sure that the plans are appropriate for a ‘medium sized village’ such as Ashington. HDC is taking the draft Neighbourhood Plan into consideration in the Local Plan Review. While we wait for the archaeological reports the Site Promoters have been working on visions and more detailed plans for the allocated sites and we expect to see fuller details, exhibitions and publicity early in the new year. Email: clerk@ashingtonpc.org.uk tel: 07851 009655 www.ashingtonpc.org.uk
