Are there limitations to the plan?

Yes. The plan has to reflect a positive vision of how people see the future of the area in terms of the planning system.

It can therefore comment on things outside of planning where this provides evidence to back up a policy - but it can not guarantee that those issues will be addressed. Examples of this could be the state of the roads, speed of traffic or the number of police officers in an area.

The Neighbourhood Plan can not be regarded as a tool for stopping development. The Government dictates how many houses each Borough must provide. But it is a way of protecting places that are important to us and saying what type of housing or business development that we, as a community, actually need.

Without a plan, development can be given the go ahead without any input from local people, meaning more danger of inappropriate or 'speculative' development in places we do not want it to be. That is why it is so important.

Another benefit of having a plan is that once 'made', it allows our Parish Council to attract more of any Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL), which is money developers have to pay if they wish to build developments of houses over a certain number. As the Parish Council will have a better idea of the views of what is important to the local community thanks to the Plan process, there will be clear priorities which will help put funding where local people want it to go.

Those issues people raise with us which can not be covered in the Neighbourhood Plan will be considered for inclusion in other Community Projects so that they do get heard and addressed by the Parish Council.