On 27 April both David Levett, NHDC Portfolio Holder for Planning, and Ian Fullstone, Head of Planning, ‘signed off’ the Pirton Neighbourhod Plan (NP). We have today (9 May) received the final official Decision Notice. This means it is officially adopted as part of the Local Development Plan. It will be considered by the NHDC Planning Officers and Planning Control Committee in relation to every planning application large and small within Pirton Parish. Even as I write, the NHDC is considering the application of the NP policies in relation to a number of development/planning proposals in Pirton.
For most members of the community who want to build an extension or otherwise improve their property, the full range of policies won't apply. Aspects such as Design (PNP2), heritage implications (PNP8) or Trees and Hedges implications (PNP 4) will be common considerations, perhaps along with Wildlife (PNP7) and Parking (PNP13). There is a specific policy PNP 3 regarding Residential Extensions. Because these policies do not involve the supply of land for housing, they are fully effective and fully "in force". For small, in-fill development within the Pirton development boundary, again all of the policies are fully effective and in force.
PNP1 "Meeting Local and Wider Needs" and perhaps some aspects of PNP2 are slightly different. PNP1 in particular impacts on the supply of land for housing, by for example restricting development to within the development boundary, and limiting any one development site to a maximum of 30 houses. This presumption arises for Pirton because the NHDC cannot at the moment demonstrate that it has identified enough sites to supply housing for 5 years (there's a formula for this); and it doesn't yet have a new Local Plan. This means that where development is proposed outside of the boundary (for example), there is a presumption in favour of granting the application.
However, this presumption can and often is overridden because the adverse impacts of granting the application would significantly and demonstrably outweigh the benefits of the planning proposal. This is where all of the NP policies come back in for consideration; alongside current Local Plan policies, policies in the emerging Local Plan, and, indeed, the policies in the Government' s National Planning Policy Framework too.
So our Neighbourhood Plan will be getting a lot of exercise from now on!
