Consultation and Engagement Strategy Report

Maresfield NDP Consultation and Engagement Strategy Report

Consultation and Engagement Strategy Report

Maresfield Neighbourhood Development Plan

Shaping Communities Ltd

3 Doctors Lane, Eydon

Northants, NN11 3PJ

Tel: 01327 261802/ 07718 226947

19th July 2013

1.0Introduction

The following consultation strategy and programme ensures the delivery of a “consultation statement” that accords with the definition of such a document as set out in Regulation 15 of the NP Regulations (a consultation statement being a statutory part of the package to be submitted for examination), which reads as follows:

15(2) In this regulation “consultation statement” means a document which –

(a)Contains details of the persons and bodies who were consulted about the proposed neighbourhood development plan;

(b)Explains how they were consulted;

(c)Summarises the main issues and concerns raised by the persons consulted; and

(d)Describes how these issues and concerns have been considered and, where relevant, addressed in the proposed neighbourhood development plan.

Maresfield parish lies within the district of Wealden in East Sussex and is not a Front Runner under central government’s Neighbourhood Plan Initiative.

Maresfield’s Neighbourhood Plan covers all of the parish area which includes Maresfield, Nutley and Fairwarpand will span the same timeframe as the adopted Local Plan, 15 years.

The Neighbourhood Plan Steering Group is leading the development of their Plan which consists of 3 representatives of each of the 3 Neighbourhood Plan working groups supporting the above villages, plus the chair of each working group, a parish councillor. Working group members are local volunteers, and there is strong sense from the Steering Group that the working groups are growing tired of undertaking the consultation and engagement, along with fears that the community is equally becoming tired of being consulted.

Through discussion it was agreed that this was, in part, due to the lack of a strategic, co-ordinated and consistent approach to consultation among working groups, and the absence of a clear consultation framework which can be shared with the community so residents and businesses know what to expect by way of consultation at key stages in the Plan making process.

The working groups have also been doing their own thing to an extent, and at different times, without a consistent approach to obtaining and capturing feedback, within jointly agreed time frames. Additionally whilst some feedback from consultation has been obtained across the areas, this has not generally been amalgamated and recorded for the parish as a whole thus far.

There has also been a lack of clarity among the groups about next steps in developing their Plan, so the purpose of consultation and engagement and how this fits into the process has feltsomewhat “hazy”.

What is clear however is that a considerable amount of consultation has been undertaken and this strategy pulls together the different strands of activity to build upon, avoiding duplication. Feedback from this consultation indicates that people are happy with the reasons for developing a Neighbourhood Plan and are happy with the housing numbers but want to be involved in determining location and style.

Between the three villages there is a total population of around 3,600 with Maresfield having the greatest population of 1,800, followed by Nutley and then Fairwarp.

The local Core Strategy is allocating 50 houses to be built in Maresfield over the next 15 years. Wealden’s current planning policy does not allow for any windfall development, an issue to be picked up by Alex Munro, among other policy issues as agreed with the Steering Group, through a meeting with Wealden District Council, such as building within the outer 7km zone surrounding the SANGS ‘Suitable Accessible Natural Green Space’ and replacing larger homes with smaller units. It is unlikely that the need for more than the 50 houses allocated to Maresfield will be identified through the final Neighbourhood Plan.

This consultation strategy and programme has been jointly developed with Steering Group. The purpose of the strategy is to amalgamate the consultation activities that have been undertaken so far by the 3 different working groups covering the parish, in order to create a consistent approach to future consultation and engagement at key stages of Plan development, tying together the work of the 3 groups and building what has been achieved to date.

Action in Rural Sussex (AiRS) have been commissioned to provide all support with questionnaire development, data input and analysis and reporting. The Steering Group is to seek a meeting with AiRS at an early stageto agree support requirements and timeframe in order to engage AiRS from now on in the process of community consultation and to ensure that support from AiRS ties in with the consultation programme developed from today’s session with the Group, keeping Plan development on track within agree time frames.

This strategy helps to identify key stakeholders and interest groups in the parish, with a view to engaging as widely as possible to demonstrate effective and meaningful engagement in the Plan’s development and to support a positive outcome at referendum. It balances robustness with the Steering Group’s capacity to undertake consultation within the projected timeframe for Plan completion. The referendum on Maresfield’ Plan was scheduled for May 2014, however during discussions as part of the workshop, the date has been revised to Autumn 2014. This is due to the extent of work involved in developing the Plan, and the time frames relating to statutory stages of consultation, including examination and referendum.

The Steering Group benefits from a good relationship with Wealden District Council who will be asked by the group to clarify what support they can lend to consultation with communities for example, maps, printing, publicity and communications, in addition to the planning authority’s statutory duties in supporting development of a Neighbourhood Plan, i.e.

• Agreeing and designating the area of the NDP/NDO
• Agreeing and designating a forum (where relevant)
• Preparation - Support
• Submission
• Examination
• Referendum

This report reflects the views and agreement reached by those present at the facilitated workshop and is intended for use by the Steering Group to help move its Plan forward. It should be reviewed by the Steering group and Parish Council before being made publicly available, if that is the intention.

This strategy for consultation and engagement supports on-going work with the Group led by Alex Munro of Maroon Planning Ltd and ensures a co-ordinated approach to project planning.

2.0Key Issues and what will be addresses by the Plan

The followings sets out the key issues that the Group would like to see addressed by the Plan:

• The Plan should produce the right housing mix to meet identified need and that the community controls where this is located over the course of the Plan period.
• The parish does not stagnate due to a policy on zero net increase in unit numbers and to maintain the vibrant community that currently exists.
• Opportunities for rural business in the plan area and barriers to/ impact of growth are considered.
• Protection of heritage buildings, ensuring that the character and heritage of the area is retained and protected through design of houses.
• Adequate community facilities and community building to meet the increase in population.
• Improvements in physical infrastructure where required.
• Clarity over use of planning gain through S106 money and CIL

Additional considerations for the Plan are traffic volumes and speeding, public transport requirements and conversion of rural buildings into business premises.

3.0Purpose of the consultation programme

For the final Neighbourhood Plan to reflect the views of those living and working in the parish of Maresfield, it is important that opportunities to consult on key issues, options and proposals, and to feed into the process of developing the Plan, are made available to all who wish to get involved. The Steering Group is keen that the Plan for the parish should belong to those living and working in the area and recognises that the views of the community and stakeholders are needed to shape the Plan as it is completed.

Engagement and consultation run throughout every stage of the Plan process and adopting an agreed consultation strategy and programme should maximise the use of existing capacity within the Steering Group to effectively manage consultation requirements, both statutory and non-statutory, through an agreed approach that evidences how concerns raised through consultation have been addressed. This is particularly important at pre-submission stage of consultation which must accord with Regulation 14 of the NP Regulations and is essential for a robust consultation statement to accompany the final Plan to the LPA (Regulation 15).

The Steering Group will be responsible for ensuring that the consultation programme is kept up to date, through periodic review and update of the attached spread sheet. It is also responsible for recording the outputs of the different events within the body of this text (see section 6) along with feeding these outputs into the next stages of consultation. The programme is not set in stone and is designed to provide a firm foundation upon which to build all stages of consultation.

Where, as in the case of Maresfield, a considerable amount of consultation has already taken place, the focus of attention will be on the remaining stages of consultation and consolidating all that has been undertaken to date.

Consultation Priorities:

1. Meet with AiRS to clarify support and start to focus on questionnaire development, in August 13
2. Steering Group to compile a comprehensive database of all community stakeholders, interest groups, community groups, landowners etc with whom to be consulting with, including statutory undertakers. Steering Group to request an up-to-date Statement of Community Involvement (SCI) from Wealden District Council.
3. All feedback to date from all consultation exercises undertaken by all 3 working groups to be collated and consolidate in order to summarise findings in a simple and systematic format. This information will be added to that obtained through the NP questionnaire.

4.0Key timescales

Core events to be factored in:

Date / Consultation programme / Number of weeks to plan/ undertake activity
January 2013 / Launch of consultation:
Publicising of Neighbourhood Plan area (see Regulation 5 of the NP Regs – submission to LPA followed by 6 week consultation period) / 6 weeks
Between 2011 and 2013
2012 and 2013
2012
Between 2011 and 2013
Between 2011 and 2013 / Consultation activity completed to date:
5 fete consultations reaching approximately 150 people in total
5 open meetings with an attendance of around 60 people at each, i.e approximately 300 people
Maresfield annual assembly used for consultation on the NP, which approximately 70 people attended
14 articles written in the in the parish’s e-newsletter to update on the NP process
Articles written in ecclesiastic magazines, delivered through every household
July 2013 / Consultation with land owners and developers to understand which sites are being put forward for inclusion in the Plan and development proposals for each site / 4 weeks
August and September 2013 / Development of NP website, linked to parish council website / 4-6 weeks
September and October 2013 / NP Questionnaire development, design and printing (including uploading to website for on-line completion) / 6-8 weeks
Late October to mid November 2013 / Distribution, completion and collection of Neighbourhood Plan questionnaires
(Discuss support with distribution and collection with AiRS) / 3 weeks
November 2013 / Young Persons event, repeated for each village / 4 weeks
November 2013 / Older persons event, Maresfield only / 4 weeks
November 2013 / Business event, 1 event parish-wide / 4 weeks
Late November and December / Questionnaire feedback data input, analysis and reporting by AiRS (both manual and on-line questionnaires) / 4-5 weeks
End of Jan, and early February 2014 / Open days to provide feedback on all consultation, using events to start to consult on draft options (to be worked up by SG during January). Exhibition rotated around all 3 villages. / 2 weeks
Mid Feb to Mid March 2014 / Continue consultation on draft options prior to Sustainability Appraisal and Strategic Environmental Assessment (if required). / 4 weeks
On-going / Sustainability Appraisals of sites / 4 weeks
Mid March to Mid April 2014 / Draft the Neighbourhood Plan / 4 weeks
Mid March to Mid April 2014 / Prepare for Statutory Consultation, (publicity, printing, consultation response form, up-loading key documents to website, meeting with LPA, consider a consultation launch exhibition etc) / 4 weeks
Mid April to end May to 2014 / Pre-submission consultation (see Regulation 14 of the NP Regs – 6 week consultation period on draft plan, followed by relevant amendments) / 6 weeks
June 2014 / Make any changes to Plan / 2-3 weeks
Early July 2014 / SUBMISSION of Plan with consultation statement, map of area and Basic Conditions Statement (LPA minimum consultation of 6 weeks) / 6 weeks
Mid August to Mid Sept 2014 / Plan examination / 3-4 weeks
Sep and October 2014 / Support referendum publicity / 4 weeks
End October 2014 / NP Referendum

5.0The Communication Strategy

5.1The Strategy

This consultation strategy aims to reflect the needs of both the Steering Group and the community. Stimulating interest and generating “buy-in” to developing the Plan will hopefully keep the community on board with consultations on the Plan whilst also supporting a positive outcome of the referendum once the final Plan has been submitted to Wealden District Council for examination, currently planned for October 2014.

It is advisable to inform the community of the remaining consultation stages early on the in process so it knows what to expect and to reduce possible criticism of “over consulting”. The Consultation Programme should continually be reviewed and updated as required, however section 4 above sets out the key stages of consultation with suggested time frames for planning events. To speed up the process, this programme shows some consultation events running in parallel where it is felt there is the capacity to do this e.g. questionnaire completion alongside the 3 further bespoke events to be delivered in November 2013. It is also advisable to consult with relevant statutory undertakers from an early stage in the process rather than wait until the need for statutory consultation prior to submitting the completed Plan to the LPA.

5.1.1 Principles underlying the consultation and engagement strategy:

• To build on any consultation activity that has already taken place, using resources effectively by focussing future consultations on specific target groups

• To focus more specifically on the use of land within the Plan area, as opposed to wider community aspirations not addressed through a Plan

• To ensure those that might be considered “harder to reach” are a focus of attention in engaging the community in discussion

• To maximise the potential for volunteer support

• To maximise use of existing information mediums

• To align consultation activities where appropriate to deliver the best outcomes for the Plan, avoiding delays to the Plan process where timing is an issue

• To influence those who may vote against the Plan at referendum, normally stakeholders energised by site specifics

5.1.2 Consultation techniques to support Maresfield’s Neighbourhood Plan.

Use of local newspaper

Keeping the community informed of consultation events will be particularly useful at key stages of consultation. E.g. consultation feedback exhibitions, statutory pre-submission consultation on the draft Plan, and at time of referendum.

Local publications

Continued regular use of the parish council e-newsletter “Your Parish Brief” and the 3 ecclesiastical magazines which benefits from being posted through all doors in the parish. Currently only around 50 people have signed up for the e-newsletter parish wide, so it is of limited benefit in reaching much of the community. However information is also placed on the parish council’s website.

Consideration can be given to producing a Q & A type page on the parish council website based on the feedback and questions raised through further consultation, and also to provide additional clarity about the process, keeping people informed and on board.

Websites

It was agreed at the workshop that a Neighbourhood Plan website would be of significant value in publicising information on the Plan, particularly at the stage of statutory consultation. For the purposes of completing the Neighbourhood Plan questionnaire later in the year, on-line completion will save time and resources, along with encouraging a greater response rate to the questionnaire.

The Group is currently looking into this initiative as a priority and examples of other NP websites will be forwarded to the Group with this report.

The presence of a populated website will also demonstrate that Neighbourhood Plan information and key background documents, along with information about pending consultations and feedback from consultations has been made available to all. A website will be needed for statutory consultation purposes to which can be added materials from the exhibition to launch the statutory consultation, should the Group decide to launch the statutory consultation through such an approach.

Introducing a face book page and twitter link will help to attract young people’s interest in the Plan, although this is largely dependent on the Group using these social media facilities to maximum effect.

Notice boards

Maximise the use of the four notice boards located across all 3 villages for sharing information about pending consultations. Information provided through notice boards should give the link to the website, once this is established.

E-mails

It is advisable to develop a comprehensive e-mail data base of all community groups, businesses, interest groups, neighbouring parishes, statutory undertakers (see section 5.1.3 below) and residents where known. Try to engage the support of other local organisations by allowing the Group to “piggy back” their own e-mail databases for disseminating information on the Plan e.g Residents Associations, Voluntary and Community Sector groups, Churches, the two primary schools, youth clubs etc. Developing an interactive page on the website for questions to be raised by the community through the site will also help to build the e-mail database and assist with wider communication.