North Cadbury and Yarlington Neighbourhood Development Plan Nextdoor Home

What is a Neighbourhood Plan?

The Localism Act 2011 gave people the democratic right to be involved in drawing up a plan for their local area that truly reflects local people's views.

Production of a Neighbourhood Development Plan (referred to simply as a Neighbourhood Plan) is a way of helping local communities to influence the Planning decisions in the future that will affect the area in in which they live and work

Creating the plan is an opportunity for everyone in the locality to take part in developing a vision for the future of the Parish, to set objectives, strategy and policies which can have a determination in planning applications. 


When it is written, the Neighbourhood Plan can:

The stages of a Neighbourhood Plan


Where are we?

The Parish Council decided the time was right to develop a neighbourhood plan and appointed a working party led by Mike Martin. The Neighbourhood plan area was submitted to and subsequently approved by SSDC :

Parish Boundary Plan

For the plan to be prepared in accordance with the Locality Act, an expert, Jo Witherden has been commissioned to guide us through the process. Jo has been involved with over thirty Neighbourhood Plans in Somerset and Dorset and will help us to form a good workable plan. For a fuller understanding of the issues, our approach and timescales see the Scoping Report 

This work does cost money and a grant has been obtained to finance it.

It is hoped to produce the plan by early 2021 and once approved be adopted by South Somerset District Council as part of SSDC Revised Local Plan due to be published in late 2020 or early 2021

In order to create a credible and successful Neighbourhood Plan we need to  demonstrate we have consulted widely, working together with Parishioners, Business and Landowners, collecting detailed information about the local area.  

This data will be used to assess housing and employment need, as well as transport, ecology, heritage and building land availability in order to create a plan that is evidenced based

Once written the neighbourhood plan will be subjected to external scrutiny by submission to an independent  planning inspector. Policies produced by our Neighbourhood Plan cannot block but they can influence development of the SSDC Local Plan

The Inspector will ensure our proposal is compliant, workable and of a decent quality

If  approved by the Inspector, the plan will be subjected to a local referendum whereby 50% +1 of votes cast by parishioners on the electoral role must be in favour of its adoption.

Once adopted by SSDC or 'Made' as it is known, the Neighbourhood Plan cannot be ignored when planning applications are decided by SSDC, Planning Inspectors or the Government.