Bentworth Parish Neighbourhood Plan

As part of the process of developing a new Local Plan, EHDC have published their proposals for revisions to the Settlement Policy Boundary (SPB) of Bentworth and also the results of their Call for Sites. Parishioners are encouraged to look at the draft Local Plan and in particular the proposed SPB changes, as residential development will not normally be permitted outside the SPB. Comments should be passed direct to EHDC, with copies please to the Neighbourhood Plan Steering Committee, so that we can take these into account when we submit our comments. The deadline for comments is 19th March 2019.

Detail

As parishioners will know from previous communications, East Hampshire District Council (EHDC) have published a draft Local Plan for the period 2017-36. This proposes no new allocations to Bentworth and indeed reduces the minimum requirement for the parish from “about 12” to 6. As part of the process of developing a new Local Plan, EHDC have undertaken a review of Settlement Policy Boundaries across the District, including Bentworth. They have also issued a new call for suitable sites for development and have now published the results of that call.

Settlement Policy Boundary

This is the planning policy boundary drawn round a settlement. The Settlement Policy Boundary around Bentworth is tightly drawn round dwellings and their gardens, but does not include all dwellings in the village and cuts through some gardens. Residential development will not be permitted outside the SPB.
EHDC have now proposed changes to Settlement Policy Boundaries across East Hampshire, including in Bentworth. A map showing proposed changes and the reasoning for them are contained in a document entitled “Settlement Policy Boundary Review: Interim Methodology Paper”, dated December 2018. This can be found on the EHDC website at https://www.easthants.gov.uk/settlement-policy-boundary-review-interim-methodology-paper-december-2018-pdf-109-mb

The specific proposals for Bentworth are at pages 94-97 of this document.

Call for Sites

EHDC carried out a new Call for Sites last year. Four sites were submitted for Bentworth:

LAA/BTW-001: “Top Field” land adjacent to Glebe Fields
LAA/BTW-002: Land on the corner of Church Street and Ashley Road
LAA/BTW-003: The Homestead
LAA/BTW-004: Crossways, Trinity Road

EHDC have published their assessment of these four sites. This can be found on the EHDC website at: https://www.easthants.gov.uk/land-availability-assessment-pdf-15-mb

The relevant pages are 137-146.

Open Meetings

EHDC are currently in the process of a six-week public consultation period on their draft Local Plan and related documents. This period runs from 5th February to 19th March. They have been holding drop-in meetings across the District to explain what is going on. Parishioners are encouraged to attend one of these. The remaining meetings are:

Submit your Comments

EHDC welcome comments on the draft Local Plan and the proposed Settlement Policy Boundary changes. These should reach EHDC by 19^thMarch.  Parishioners are encouraged to contribute.  The EHDC website sets out how comments can be submitted:

https://www.easthants.gov.uk/draft-local-plan

Bentworth Parish Neighbourhood Plan Steering Committee would encourage parishioners to comment and would welcome it if their comments could be copied to us at neighbourhoodplan@bentworthparishcouncil.org   This will allow us to take parishioners’ views into account when we submit our comments to EHDC.

We will continue to keep parishioners informed as the process develops.

Bentworth Parish Neighbourhood Plan Steering Committee

[Please note that this message is not posted on behalf of Bentworth Parish Council and does not necessarily reflect the Parish Council’s policy]