Laverstock & Ford Communities Neighbourhood Plan

Shaping the Future of Laverstock and Ford Parish

Laverstock and Ford Parish Council has embarked on the production of a Neighbourhood Plan. This is a very real commitment to the future, backed by central government community legislation (the Localism Act 2011). It follows on from the Parish Plan which has been in place since 2009 and has successfully encouraged and guided many improvements in our area during a period of significant growth.

Its scope is more limited than the Parish Plan, since it is required to focus primarily on land use and development, but within this area it has more legal weight in planning decisions within the parish. This website forms part of the community engagement essential to informing residents of progress and gathering their views on and input to the Plan.

Our Neighbourhood Plan is a community-led framework for guiding the future development of our parish through to 2036. It contains a vision, aim and objectives, development planning policies, and proposals for improving the area, specifically addressing the issues of landscape and green space preservation, community infrastructure and protection of the environment.

It was supported at a referendum and “made” (i.e. approved) by Wiltshire Council and now forms part of the Wiltshire Development Plan. This means that Wiltshire Council, or planning inspectors, will have to take account of the Neighbourhood Plan when making decisions concerning planning applications or appeals in the neighbourhood area.

The Neighbourhood Plan was Approved in the Parish Referendum!

The Neighbourhood Plan was approved by a majority of the parish residents who voted in the Referendum which was held on Thursday 13 October 2022.

The referendum asked: ‘Do you want Wiltshire Council to use the Neighbourhood Plan for Laverstock and Ford Parish to help it decide planning applications in the neighbourhood area?’

801 people voted Yes, which was 86.6% of those who cast a vote. Wiltshire Council then proceeded to “make” (i.e. approve) the Plan which means that it now forms part of the Wiltshire Council Development Plan and its policies will be given full weight when assessing planning applications relating to land within the parish boundary.

The Neighbourhood Plan documents approved in the referendum can be found on the Documents page of the LFCNP website, and the official notification of the referendum result is in the evidence section of that page.

The “Made” Version of the Neighbourhood Plan and its Appendices are also available on the Wiltshire Council website, together with a number of other important documents that include the examiner’s report on the draft Plan and the Wiltshire Council Decision Statement (which identifies the modifications which were required to the Plan by Wiltshire Council). To read these please click here

The Steps to an Adopted Plan

Formed late in 2017 the Neighbourhood Plan Steering Group is made up of volunteer residents from the parish, including Parish Councillors. It established a vision and objectives for the Neighbourhood Plan and established an overarching aim to “to preserve the character and sustainability of our semi-rural parish”. They have collected much background information on relevant planning policy, potential residential and commercial developments, census data etc. and feedback from residents on their current likes and dislikes concerning the parish. Analysis of this evidence has enabled the preparation of an outline plan which was used to guide the drafting of surveys for parish residents and other stakeholders. These surveys were in the form of paper and online questionnaires and were conducted in the autumn/winter of 2019/20. There was a good response to all the surveys. Links to the summaries of the surveys’ results can be found in the Supporting Documents and Evidence section of the Documents page, and to the summaries of the residents questionnaire results at community area level on each community’s page. As a reminder the Laverstock and Ford Parish is made up of four community areas: Laverstock and Milford; Bishopdown Farm/Hampton Park/Riverdown Park; Ford; and Old Sarum/Longhedge. Detailed analysis of these survey responses enabled a draft neighbourhood plan to be written, and also input to be given to Wiltshire Council in the drafting of their emerging Local Plan, which reflects residents’ and other stakeholders’ views. Following approval by the Parish Council, the draft neighbourhood plan was published for residents’ and other stakeholders’ comments between May 10th and July 2nd 2021, and virtual Q&A sessions were held on Zoom. All comments received were then reviewed and any necessary amendments made to the draft plan and appendices. The amended documents were agreed by the Steering Group and adopted by the Parish Council in December 2021.

These versions of the Draft Plan and appendices were sent to Wiltshire Council in January 2022 to commence the examination process. These were accompanied by two further documents, one detailing the consultations which have supported their preparation (the Consultation Statement) and another showing that the policies in the Plan are consistent with national and Wiltshire council planning policies and neighbourhood planning legislation (the Basic Conditions Statement). Wiltshire Council indicated that the documents met the requirements to go forward to examination. The first step in this process was a further (Regulation 16) public consultation during which any further comments could be submitted to Wiltshire Council. This was completed in April 2022. The draft Neighbourhood Plan, alongside any comments received during the consultations, was then examined by an independent inspector to check the draft Plan for legal compliance. The examiner produced a report for Wiltshire Council which subsequently issued a Decision Statement to Proceed to Referendum. This identified a number of changes that were required to be made to our draft Plan. These were carried out to produce a final version of the Plan and a referendum on its adoption was held in the parish by Wiltshire Council in October 2022. There was a majority in favour of the Neighbourhood Plan resulting in it being adopted by Wiltshire Council which means that it must be considered and given full weight in any planning decision which affects the parish.