Pirton Neighbourhood Development Plan 2011 - 2031

I am a current serving Parish Councillor and have been for over 20 plus years, bar a couple of breaks; living locally all of my life and with a passion for the Village.

My reason for joining the steering group was for a say in the process of future growth in the village of Pirton with the right type of housing being built in the right parts of the village.
Myself and a colleague were removed from the NDP steering group for our views as we were concerned that the NDP was not being conducted correctly.
In a nutshell the "nimbys" had taken over. You will see this once you have read the NDP draft and received the numerous letters from unhappy landowners within the NDP designated area.
I wish to strongly object to the poor process and bias way it has been conducted from the very start.

Below are my main objections;

Members of the public/parishioners were not fully briefed nor do they understand the planning process/local plan. They were then asked to complete a "loaded " questionnaire drawn up by the NDP steering group and the analysis carried out by a Family member.

No proper consultation and dialogue with landowners from the beginning, despite numerous experts and Locality, DCLG, who said they should be involved and also on the steering group.

Not one site has been identified for future development within the draft plan, and the sub-working group of the NDP steering group looking at "landownership and potential development " was quickly folded after one initial meeting of which I saw at first hand the anti - development nature of this steering group. I was shouted down for even mentioning the word development!
It also took them a long time to use the term NDP not NP. !!

The village has been surrounded by Visual Character Areas which blocks any future expansion of the village, which has already been heavily infilled. The expert stated to us that we should have one or two VCA`s as any more defeats the objective.

There is a cap on future developments of 30 units/houses, but where will these sites go? As none as previously stated have been identified. NHDC themselves even advised against putting a limit of 30 along with independent experts who were consulted during their Regulation 14 submission.

The draft NDP will be superseded by the NHDC Local Plan which is currently being prepared. This draft doesn't conform in respect of housing growth over the next 15 Years plus.

I understand the Housing White Paper will aim to have both Local and NDP'
Reviewed every 5 Years to cater for demographic and economic change, no mention of this in this NDP.

NHDC does not have a 5 year house/land supply and therefore the Local Plan is out of date. This is unlikely to be rectified until late 2018 or even 2019. Until then this village is vulnerable on the "presumption in favour principle "which could mean further planning applications.
This draws me to the conclusion that the NDP steering group have sadly, not listened to experts and had meaningful dialogue with the landowners, not explained the situation to residents and not made any attempt to identify sites where a reasonable number could be built.

The recreation ground is not included in the new Village boundary.

To summarise this draft NDP should be sent back for proper consultation with the Landowners and Parishioners otherwise I fear a "developer" will ride roughshod over a weak NDP and would through the planning process easily overturn this current Draft.

By not having dialogue with landowners we currently have one site which the landowner originally wanting to build 8 houses has now Outline permission for 82 houses and perhaps would have been happy with 50 houses. This was a direct result of no dialogue and an progressive planning consultant eventually brought in.
By objecting to everything and not looking at sensible growth and dialogue we are getting and going to get over development, the exact opposite of what this weak NDP is trying to achieve.