Sheepy Parish Neighbourhood Plan Review and Update 2026
Information evenings
Thank you to all those who attended the Information Evenings this week. We hope you found it useful in explaining what neighbourhood planning is and the importance of having an up-to-date plan for the parish. For those unable to attend, you can find the presentation slides on the Parish Council website.
To those who indicated at the information evenings that they would be interested in being on the Neighbourhood Plan steering group. We will contact you soon to organise an informal meeting to explain what is involved and for you to consider this further. If anyone else is interested or wants to find out more, please contact the Parish Council directly (info@sheepyparish.com).
The need for the Neighbourhood Plan review
Whilst we already have a Neighbourhood Plan, it inevitably becomes out of date over time as Government planning policy changes and if our Borough Council manages to produce and implement a new Local Plan. One of the most important policy areas where the Neighbourhood Plan needs to be up-to-date is in ensuring that it makes adequate provision for housing numbers set out in the Local Plan. Having an up-to-date Neighbourhood Plan (one that is less than five years old) will give the community control over where it wants to see development take place and the type of development (size and design etc). It can also specify what additional infrastructure and/or improvements it wants to see and ensure that adequate protection is given to what the community values most. Our current plan has been very effective in doing this so far, but will become less so once new national and borough policies are approved.
Updating the current Neighbourhood Plan is therefore something that the Parish Council believes is necessary, but that it needs community support and involvement to deliver it. It will take somewhere between 12-24 months to complete the process, if it passes referendum. In the past, we have been successful in applying for grant funding to cover the costs. However, grant funding is no longer available and so if we are to carry out a review and update the plan, the cost will need to be borne by the Parish Council, i.e. by you as a council taxpayer. The Parish Council has approved this expenditure, subject to the community’s support for the review. This is why support from the beginning is critical.