Final approval for latest neighbourhood plan in Northumberland

The seventh neighbourhood plan in Northumberland has made it to the end of the process and been adopted.
Coun John Riddle, cabinet member for planning.Coun John Riddle, cabinet member for planning.
Coun John Riddle, cabinet member for planning.

At Tuesday’s meeting of the county council’s cabinet, members agreed to formally ‘make’ the Longhorsley Neighbourhood Plan, which will now be used to determine planning applications in the parish.

Councillors heard that it is soon to be followed by an eighth with the Whittington plan passing referendum last week.

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The Longhorsley plan, which has been in development since 2014, passed referendum in August with a majority yes vote of 89.6 per cent, based on a turnout of just under a quarter of the registered electors in the parish.

It had passed independent examination, subject to modifications, in May and has been ‘informed by extensive community consultation and engagement’.

A report to councillors said: ‘The Longhorsley Neighbourhood Plan has 20 planning policies which have been developed to address particular spatial planning and land use issues identified by the local community.

‘The policies set out in the plan cover the following matters: General development principles; design; sustainable housing; supporting business; community facilities; landscape, biodiversity and heritage; and safer movement.’

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In recent years, Longhorsley has been the target for a number of planning applications for new homes, sparking a number of concerns.

Coun John Riddle, the cabinet member for planning, said that the development of the plan had involved a lot of work, with the support of county council officers, and that it was not there to stop development, ‘but to have it in a sensible manner’.

Ben O'Connell, Local Democracy Reporting Service