Decision details

To seek agreement to act on the Examiner’s report into the Great Staughton Neighbourhood Plan leading to a referendum on whether or not it should be brought into force as part of the statutory development plan and the timetable for this process.

The Cabinet has agreed that the District Council should act upon the Examiner’s report to accept the recommended modifications and progress the neighbourhood plan to referendum.

The recommended decision is necessary to enable the Great Staughton Neighbourhood Plan to proceed to referendum.

Following the examination of a neighbourhood plan the Examiner sends their report to the local planning authority and the town/parish council preparing the neighbourhood plan.  The examiner is required to set out one of three options:

1.  That the neighbourhood plan proceeds to referendum as submitted

2.  That the neighbourhood plan is modified by the local planning authority to meet the basic conditions and the modified version proceeds to referendum; or

3.  That the neighbourhood plan does not proceed to referendum as it fails to meet the basic conditions and/ or legislative requirements and cannot be modified to do so.

The local planning authority has limited options in how to respond to the examiner’s recommendations:

a)  Act upon the Examiner’s report and progress the neighbourhood plan to referendum, whether or not the Examiner recommends modifications are necessary to meet the basic conditions;

b)  Propose to take a decision substantially different from the Examiner’s recommendation which is wholly or partly as a result of new evidence or a different view taken by the local planning authority about a particular fact; or

c)  Decide not to progress the neighbourhood plan in light of the Examiner’s report - this is only permissible where ‘3.’ above is the case.

As in previous years an Extra Burdens Grant of £20,000 can be claimed following the referendum, intended to meet the costs of the referendum and other resources involved in supporting the production of the neighbourhood plan.