Hastings’ first neighbourhood plan out to consultation

After a decade of zero activity, community planning is being pushed forward in the west of the borough, where a consultation is under way to test local support for the development of a neighbourhood plan. HOT’s Chris Connelley investigates.

Neighbourhood planning has been knocking around for over a decade now, having been introduced by former prime minister David Cameron in 2011 as part of his localism agenda to enhance community involvement in the planning process and to better align the aspirations of local residents with broader planning deliberations.

As the government website puts it,  “neighbourhood planning provides the opportunity for communities to set out a positive vision for how they want their community to develop over the next 10, 15, 20 years in ways that meet identified local need and make sense for local people. They can put in place planning policies that will help deliver that vision or grant planning permission for the development they want to see.”

Neighbouring authorities Rother and Lewes have seen active use of the provision, with a number of  plans agreed or on the go in both areas, but to date, Hastings has been a cold spot, recording zero activity thus far.

Over the coming weeks, that blank scorecard may be about to change, as residents in West St Leonards are consulted on whether work should start on the borough’s first neighbourhood plan.

Following an extended period of preparatory work by the West St Leonards Forum (WSLF), a citizen group in the area, Hastings Borough Council, the local planning authority, has recently launched a public consultation on the forum’s application for designation of West St Leonards as a neighbourhood area, which remains open until 23 February.

Grassroots activity

This first formal step follows almost two years of grassroots activity, protracted by Covid, during which time volunteers from WSLF knocked on hundreds of local doors in an attempt to discover the issues that mattered to residents and to define the geographical boundaries that make up West St Leonards.

WSLF member William Ackroyd said they started off with the ward boundaries used for elections but have extended the coverage following requests from people living in immediately adjacent roads to be part of the area in scope.

WSLF, which currently has 30 members, with a wider pool of 250 contacts who have registered an interest, contends that “West St Leonards is a special area, with its own history and identity, which has been much neglected”.

It intends to challenge that, and has a number of positive aims for the area, including: “better housing, built or retrofitted to high environmental standards; better public transport; better walking and cycling routes; protection for green space; properly conserved for enhanced biodiversity; imaginative development of the Old Bathing Pool site as an attractive local centre; and the redesignation of Combe Valley Way as the A259 to reduce through traffic.”

Multi-stage process

Designating an area is the first step in a multi-stage neighbourhood planning process that involves consulting local residents and businesses on their vision for that agreed area and writing a draft neighbourhood plan that captures those preferences. Draft plans are considered by the local authority and an independent examiner before being put to a public vote, with each resident in the designated area able to vote for or against adoption.

If more than half of those voting support the neighbourhood plan, it comes into force as part of the statutory development plan for the area, thereby informing future planning decisions.

That’s all much further down the line though. The current consultation is solely concerned with the designation of the neighbourhood area, and the appropriateness of the WSLF as the lead organisation through which the work will be progressed.

Residents can take part in the consultation online or by filling out paper forms available from the Community Contact Centre, Muriel Matters House, Breeds Place, Hastings, the Reference section in Hastings Library, Brassey Institute, 13 Claremont, Hastings, or at Hollington Library, 96 Battle Road, St Leonards-on-Sea.

Significant effort has been made to actively engage with the local community, with every household in the area receiving a brochure and a personal visit from the WSLF team. Local businesses and associations have also been contacted, with further face-to-face outreach planned for this coming weekend, when forum members will be holding drop-in sessions at the Comet Pub in Harley Shute Road on Saturday February 11 between 11 am and 4 pm.

They will also be  at the Dove Cafe at 19 Bexhill Road, St Leonards-on-Sea between 2 and 4pm on the same day to answer questions and, if necessary, help with access to the form.

An outcome is expected within a fortnight of the completion of the consultation period, and HOT will continue to cover this story as work progresses.

 

See also Neighbourhood plan takes shape in West St Leonards

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