Description

Tetlow King Planning (TKP) advised Frome Town Council on the drafting of its Neighbourhood Plan following Frome Town Council’s successful bid to be one of the DCLG’s funded Neighbourhood Plan frontrunners. The Town Council moved forward to establish the foundations of a plan which reflects the wishes of the local

community.

At the time Frome benefited from having a community strategic plan (Vision for Frome), Mendip District Council’s draft Core Strategy, the Town Council Strategic Plan and a draft Design Statement for Frome. These documents were used by the Neighbourhood Plan Steering Group to compile a list of identified priorities. These priorities were then tested using a Citizens’ Panel, a small representative group of people, to ensure that the identified priorities are still relevant.

TKP’s brief was to help to draft policies that:

• Were in broad conformity with the policies contained within the existing Mendip District Local Plan;
• Develop the strategic components of the then emerging Mendip District Local Plan;
• Respond to the agreed vision and strategic objectives and the final feedback report from the Citizens’ Panel meetings; and
• Set down the key components of development and land use that the Neighbourhood Plan will support and the criteria that will be used to decide whether a development proposal is likely to be acceptable or not.

The focus of the Neighbourhood Plan included “Enabling people to build their own homes, live more affordably in a more energy efficient way and play a more active part in the community”. One of the key objectives is to support the delivery of housing to meet the demand of a growing population. This will be achieved through policies that:

• Provide or contribute to a mix of housing tenures, types and sizes to help support the creation of mixed, balanced and inclusive communities;
• Are quality design developments, providing energy efficient homes; and
• Make provision for Self-Build and Community-Build housing.

The adopted Neighbourhood Plan included an exceptions policy which allows for Self-Build and Community Housing to be permitted outside of, but immediately adjoining, the development limits for Frome where development would not otherwise be permitted, in order to help encourage the growth of Self-Build housing within Frome.

_{© Image copyright Ronald Searle and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.}

Client

Frome Town Council

Local Authority

Mendip District Council