IN excess of 25 people attended a meeting last week to hear about the St Stephen by Launceston Rural Neighbourhood Development Plan (NDP), which aims to give local people more say about what happens in the area in which they live.

Neighbourhood Planning allows people to come together through a parish or town council and say where they think new houses, businesses and shops should go, and what they should look like. These Neighbourhood Plans can be very simple, or go into considerable detail.

The meeting at Langore Village Hall on Monday, July 2, allowed residents to find out more about what the plan would mean and the process it has to go through before it can be adopted and hold weight when planning applications in the parish are considered.

Professional consultant James Evans, who has been working on the plan to make sure it meets all the planning rules, was on hand with a slideshow to explain more. He is a qualified planner and has worked in Cornwall Council and now works privately. He has worked for developers, applicants and parish councils, particularly on neighbourhood planning and has worked on ‘ten or so’ neighbourhood plans across Cornwall.

He has been working on the St Stephens NDP since September, and explained it is now the ‘Regulation 14 version’, meaning it is at the first formal point of community engagement and subject to a six-week consultation process. They are seeking comments and feedback from the community on the policies and content of the plan.

Those attending the meeting were assured after this consultation period the plan would be reviewed against all comments received, and a consultation statement will highlight how they have responded to comments. Comments will be anonymous.

The plan would then be updated for the ‘Regulation 16 version’ and submitted to Cornwall Council who, if satisfied the plan passes the legal tests, will undertake a further six-week consultation process, before the plan is submitted to the independent examiner. The examiner will conclude if the plan should proceed to public referendum and may suggest revisions to the document.

Mr Evans said: “It’s down to the public to vote for it. It’s like Brexit, you vote yes or no. If 50% vote yes then the document is ‘made’ — adopted for planning. Ultimately it’s the community that decides.”

He described the Cornwall Local Plan, a development plan document (DPD) that covers the whole of Cornwall, which the St Stephens NDP would run alongside if adopted. Mr Evans added: “The Cornwall Local Plan doesn’t mention your parish at all or anywhere in your parish. Without [a NDP] planning documents will be determined primarily against the Cornwall Local Plan.”

The plan includes 17 planning policies for the parish, a parish design guide, a community consultation statement, a basic conditions statement, supporting appendices and supporting evidence base. It can be viewed at ststephensruralnp.org.uk

Parishioners were taken through the 17 policies, including the housing target of seven further dwellings up to 2030. If the NDP is put in place after this target of seven is met, all further housing will be required to primarily deliver affordable housing to meet local needs. Policy two directs that new housing is focused on the settlements of Langore and Dutson and does not exceed a scale of more than two dwellings.

One local resident said: “Villages need new blood to keep them going. Do you think two houses will address that problem?” They also asked if this would prevent development in the Truscott area. Parish Cllr Joe Caudle, who is chair of the Neighbourhood Plan steering group, said ‘Truscott is seen as unsuitable for future development’ in the Cornwall Local Plan, and that St Stephens NDP would have to ‘fit in’ with the local plan. He added: “As a steering group we have done this because we wanted to provide for what local people wanted. We have not conjured this up without consulting people in this parish.”

Shirley Martyn from Langore asked: “How are you going to entice people to want to build affordable housing? Building two affordable homes is not viable.” Mr Evans said although he imagines ‘it’s more viable with a bigger scheme’, he has seen such small schemes elsewhere.

Cllr Caudle added: “There is the option not to have a neighbourhood plan and let market led forces dictate what happens in this area.”

Another policy in the neighbourhood plan, if implemented, would allow succession housing on farms and support a second dwelling on established farming units — something the Cornwall Local Plan ‘doesn’t allow for’, said Mr Evans.

Policy four is a principle residency condition to be attached to all new-build dwellings. As per other NDPs in Cornwall, this policy requires all new homes to be built in the parish to be occupied as a primary residence. Policy five seeks development that comes forward to demonstrate how it is responding to the needs of the parish so that it gets the type and style of homes that the community needs.

Policy six would direct where funding obtained through the Community Infrastructure Levy should be focused through the establishment of a local project list to be held by the parish council.

There are also policies that would require new development to provide appropriate infrastructure and facilities in a timely manner and new development to deliver good quality design, as well as policies listing heritage features and seeking to safeguard and enhance biodiversity.

Policy 14 would give local green space designation to Truscott Parish Ponds and Langore Village Green.

Speaking about Langore Village Green, Ms Martyn asked: “That was destined for a village hall for the community, it now seems to be a village green. What consultation has been had on that? Has everybody agreed in the future we don’t want a village hall?”

Jenny Coppen, secretary of the steering group, explained that land was designated as recreation land, and once planning permission for a village hall on that site expired, it reverted back to the original recreation designation. She added: “Given how much the current hall is used, we are going to need a lot more people!”

Cllr Caudle added: “If younger people come in and have a drive for a village hall it’s not completely out of the question.”

Mr Evans said: “These policies are not set in stone. If you are concerned about a policy you need to write in.”

Summing up, Cllr Caudle said: “This neighbourhood plan may not be perfect but it’s better than nothing. If most people or the majority of people decide they don’t want this, fair enough, we go back to the Cornwall Local Plan and the national planning framework, and as we’ve discovered, you have no say. We are trying to do our little bit for local people.

“It’s something we have not done lightly but we have done it because so many planning applications have come up and whatever we say has carried no weight whatsoever. Ultimately a neighbourhood plan would give us a little bit more control over what happens.”

Comments can be emailed to [email protected] and responses must be received by Friday, August 24.