Great Massingham Parish Council | Neighbourhood Plan

NEIGHBOURHOOD PLAN

Examining Drawings

New Housing

In May 2021, Great Massingham Parish Council agreed to start a Neighbourhood Development Plan following a collective request to do so by approximately 55 residents of the village. The Council appointed a temporary Pre-steering Group of four which subsequently expanded into a larger Steering Group and a Support Group on the basis of responses to a widely distributed recruiting leaflet Leaflet draft 3 PDF (proposed revisions 230521). The Steering Group together with the Parish Council is responsible for preparing the NDP in consultation with residents of the parish.

Dates for Neighbourhood Development Steering Committee Meetings

The NDP Steering Group will be continuing its work during 2025 to complete the Neighbourhood Plan. Dates for forthcoming meetings, which all are welcome to attend, are listed below.

Saturday 1st March 10.00am - Village Tour to assess Views and Green Spaces

These are to be held at the Village Hall Bar at 5.00pm on the following dates:-

Monday 3rd March

Monday 7th April (Please note it is not the 3rd April as previously stated)

Tuesday 6th May

Monday 2nd June

For further updates please refer to the NDP website www.greatmassinghamndp.co.uk

How the Great Massingham NDP is organised

The NDP is being prepared by a Steering Group (see below) . The Steering Group operates in partnership with the Parish Council as a Working Party of the Council under agreed Terms of Reference. Inputs may also be needed from professional consultants and the Borough Council. The Steering Group meets at least quarterly and reports to the Parish Council. Any resident with a legitimate interest in the NDP can apply to be a member.

The Council, as the qualifying body in accordance with the Neighbourhood Planning (General) Regulations 2012). is ultimately responsible for funding the NDP, appointing external consultants, approving the Steering Group’s final draft of the NDP and subsequent submission to the Borough Council for approval.

Members of the Steering Group

Gary Alexander, Clare Carroll, Jon Cole, Jess Cunningham, *Peter James,

Phil Ward and *Mick Wingell.

(*parish councillor)

The NDP contact email is gmndplan@yahoo.com. Click on this and send an e-mail asking to be placed on our circulation list. You will get progress reports, a notice of surveys or public meetings, and other updates about the NDP. We will be careful not to overload your email inbox.

The postal address is

Great Massingham Village Hall,

52 Station Rd. Great Massingham,

King’s Lynn, Norfolk, PE32 2HU

Neighbourhood Development Plan Steering Group’s Annual Report 2023/24

Summary

The Neighbourhood Development Plan (NDP) is a community document which represents the views

and ambitions of the community in terms of future development within the parish of Great

Massingham. Once completed and adopted it will form part of the formal planning process for use

by the Borough Council planning officers in determining what type of developments comes forward

(or not).

During the past year much work has taken place and activity continues towards the development of

a draft Neighbour Development Plan supported by a range of external organisations and the local

community through its Steering Group and other volunteers. Key activities and events during

2023/24 include:

Community Consultation event in May 2023: over 100 people attended an interactive display

setting out the result of the previous engagement and asked the community for their views on a

range of topics to include:

Review of the results from the Consultation – Considerable information was collected at the

event which required review to understand it’s relevance to the NDP, common themes and emerging

ideas to support the ambition of the Community.

Housing Needs Assessment

Change of Chair in August 2023, following much great work to progress the NDP Mike Jackson

stepped down as Chair and from the Steering Group. A new Chair was voted on (Jess Cunningham)

and a new vice-chair was also appointed (Gary Alexander).

Review of the emerging Local Plan information and assessment of various planning documents

to assess how the NDP can provide additionality and not just repeat what is already covered within

existing/emerging planning policy/guidance.

Engagement with a Planning Consultant and Local Authority officers to support the development

of the key themes and areas/questions for further discussion which have supported the structures

for the next round of community engagement (July 2024).

Look forward to 2024/25

A further Community Participatory event is planned for July 2024, this will seek further clarification of key themes/questions that have emerged through this process.
Engagement with the Borough Council NDP Office to help inform the process for the final stages of the NDP
Present a DRAFT NDP document to the community for consideration.
Steering Group envisage being able to present a draft NDP for the community to consider.

April 2024

Update of Activities of the Neighbourhood Development Plan (NDP).

Over the last few months, the Steering Group have been considering the results of the consultation activities and how these relate to the existing and emerging local plan. The aim being to not just repeat what is in these documents (This is not the purpose of the NDP), but that we add value to the existing policy concerning issues that are specific to the community. As you can imagine these are very mixed and varied.
We have received a small amount of funding for the current financial year that will cover costs such as website hosting, survey platform subscription and a small amount of consultancy support.
We will apply for more funding in the new financial year to cover future costs were possible.

Where do we go from here?

The Steering will continue to review data and documents.
We will undertake some more refined public engagement on specific issues. Some of the community views are very clear and have given us a mandate for specific areas of work, whilst others are less so. There are also many issues that are outside of the NDP remit and are for the Parish Council or in fact the community to progress themselves.
Set out a programme for communication on progress on the NDP (possibly look for some extra support from the community to do this). We will discuss this further at our next meeting.

Whilst we have lost a few of the Steering Group over the progress of the plan, we still have a solid group of people who can respectfully challenge and are open minded. We don’t have all the answers and will ensure that where we need more information, we will engage with the appropriate people, be it, the community, council officers or others.

Just a reminder that we are a group of volunteers doing our best to capture the views of the Community and reach a consensus.