Council-wide Plans
Neighbourhood Plan
Presenting the council's neighbourhood plan status and documents.
Neighbourhood Plan is ‘Made’
Following a majority vote in favour at a referendum held 2nd December 2021, West Northamptonshire Council (WNC) formally made the Neighbourhood Plan on 3 December 2021. The Plan now forms part of the Statutory Development Plan and will be used when determining planning applications in the Clipston Neighbourhood Area.
The Neighbourhood Plan contains a number of policies, including actions addressing climate change; biodiversity; supporting limited development activity; retention of local green spaces; and introducing community actions promoting initiatives from parishioners. All of the Neighbourhood Plan policies were drafted following engagement with the residents of Clipston parish.
Further information is available on the WNC Website, including the made Neighbourhood Plan and its Appendices, the Examiner’s Final Report (including its Addendum) and a Summary of the representations submitted to the Independent Examiner.
The made Neighbourhood Plan can also be found on this website, with also its Appendices, Figures and Supporting Documents.
Referendum result
An Executive Summary of the Referendum Version of the Neighbourhood Plan was produced by the Neighbourhood Plan Advisory Committee on behalf of Clipston Parish Council (CPC). A hard copy of this was hand delivered (in November 2021) to all households in the Parish.
The Referendum was then held at Clipston Village Hall on 2nd December 2021 with Clipston parishioners, who were registered to vote, being asked the following question:
“Do you want West Northamptonshire Council to use the Neighbourhood Plan for Clipston to help it decide planning applications in the neighbourhood area?”
The Referendum provided the following result:
Yes 86.7% No 13.3%
The turnout (from an electorate of 543) was 42.9%
Initial Procedures, Public Consultation and Examination
An initial open meeting was held at the Village Hall in September 2016 to gauge opinion from Parishioners about progressing a Neighbourhood Plan. This was well attended, following which an Advisory Committee was formed by volunteers, with professional advice being provided in due course by YourLocale. All meeting Agendas and Minutes can be found on this website.
CPC applied to Daventry District Council on 20th February 2017 to designate the Neighbourhood Plan Area in accordance with the Parish boundary. The Designation was made on 3rd March 2017.
A Questionnaire was produced in winter 2017 to obtain further information from the community. This was distributed to every household in the Parish with an invitation to all adult householders to respond. All Parishioners were invited to an initial Open Drop-in Event at Clipston Village Hall in February 2018. Following this, in March 2018 a meeting was held to launch three Theme Groups, comprising members from Clipston Parish. A further Drop-in Event was held at the Village Hall in January 2020.
Between 4th September 2020 and 30th October 2020 the draft of the Neighbourhood Plan went through the pre-submission consultation known as ‘Regulation 14’. The documents which were published for this consultation and all comments made, all responses given and all consequential changes made to the Neighbourhood Plan at this stage can be accessed on this website here.
Between the 9th February 2021 and 23rd March 2021 the Submitted Version of the draft Neighbourhood Plan went through the consultation known as ‘Regulation 16’, arranged by WNC.
WNC and CPC then appointed in May 2021 an Independent Examiner to consider and assess the Plan. Following that appointment the comments made to WNC during the Regulation 16 consultation period together with all other Neighbourhood Plan paperwork, were submitted by WNC to the Examiner. The Examiner then issued his Final Report in September 2021 and its Addendum in October 2021. All of these documents can be found on the WNC Website under ‘Clipston’.
Following the above, WNC at its Cabinet Meeting on 12th October 2021, agreed that the Plan as modified by the Examiner’s recommendations should proceed to the Referendum.