Recently Saddleworth Parish Council submitted an application to Oldham Council and the Peak District National Park Authority to draw up a Neighbourhood Plan to cover the area of Saddleworth Parish. The request has now been granted and this week a steering group met to draw up the timeline for producing the plan.
A Neighbourhood Plan is an important and powerful document with real legal force and therefore has to conform with certain formal procedures. It is a document which:
- sets out planning policies for the neighbourhood area. ( Planning policies are used to decide whether to approve planning applications )
- is written by the local community, the people who know and love the area
- A powerful tool to ensure the community gets the right types of development, in the right place.
Local people make the plan which allows them to develop planning policies that reflect the priorities which they see in their area and have real legal weight. The whole community then decides at a referendum vote whether the local authority should bring the plan into force. We anticipate that the whole process will take us up to the end of 2018.
We hope that as many local people and groups as possible will be involved in the writing of this important Neighbourhood Plan and a public launch event for this project will be held on Tuesday 21st February at 7.00pm at the Civic Hall, Uppermill where all are welcome.