Neighbourhood Development Plan

The strong demand nationally for new homes makes it inevitable that villages and towns in the country will have to expand. The growth targets now reaching communities in the south east look for a 25% increase in the number of houses over the next 20 years.

Neighbourhood planning, which was introduced by the government in 2011, allows communities to decide where they want this housing to be built and what best suits their needs in accordance with the local district council and the National Planning Policy Framework. Simply put, without a community agreed Neighbourhood Plan new homes will be built where developers see opportunities, rather than on sites that the whole community agrees that are most appropriate.

Neighbourhood plans can only be adopted after extensive consultation with people living and working in the Parish. The plan must also be reviewed by the Parish and District Councils and followed by a referendum of all those living in the Parish to decide whether to adopt the plan that emerges from this process.

The Slapton Neighbourhood Development Plan was ‘made’, following a referendum, on 17th July 2018.

There are four specific areas where Slapton’s Neighbourhood Plan has given us greater control over how our village develops:

• We have influenced where we want homes to be built
• The design principles that should apply to those new buildings
• We have protected areas of land that are important to the community and to the local environment
• We have stated our desires for the sort of facilities we would like introduced alongside any new development.
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The Slapton Neighbourhood Development Plan was produced by a volunteer group of Parishioners who undertook a not insubstantial body of work in order to provide Slapton, Horton and Grove with a legal working document that guides future planning.