The Best Guide for the Neston Area

Neston Neighbourhood Plan - An Update

Part one of four articles covering matters presented and discussed at a community meeting which took place on Tuesday 28th October at Neston Cricket Club.

Rob Ward attended the meeting and has kindly provided, for AboutMyArea CH64 readers, his notes on:

1. Neston Neighbourhood Plan - speaker Phil Baker
2. Parkgate Vision - Future Improvements - question & answer session with Cllrs Martin Barker (Neston Town Council) and Brenda Dowding (Cheshire West and Chester Council).
3. Community Involvement - speaker David Johnson
4. Mosquito Mitigation - speaker Professor Michael Clarkson.

Neston Neighbourhood Plan

Phil attended a Drop-in at Neston Town Hall on 15 June 2012 which led to his becoming Chair of the Community Steering Group. Nobody present at the large meeting in Neston Cricket Club admitted to not knowing about the Neighbourhood Plan (NP), which derives from the Government's National Planning Policy Framework (which says how many new houses they think we need). This leads to a Local Plan drawn up by Cheshire West & Chester, which our NP has to fit (but which is not yet complete).

The NP covers the Neston Civil Parish, which includes Parkgate, Ness and Little Neston, and in 2011 was home to 15,221 people in 7.097 properties. The Plan runs from 2010 - 2030 (even though the Localism Act became law only in 2012). It can influence land planning (not litter or parking).

Neston Town Council recruited over 20 volunteers, who worked with three town councillors to consult with the public in a street poll, at Neston Market, at Neston Village Fair, and in a special eight-page issue of Neston Matters. This offered 28 draft proposals: the public cast their votes in boxes in the supermarkets, Town Hall and Library.

The draft Plan is not yet public, but Phil held up a copy of the 60-page document, 'hot off the press', and outlined the contents. It starts with Key Spatial Issues; then Objectives; then 32 Policies with explanations, which can be used in planning applications when it is a legal document.

The policies can be put into categories:

• Three deal with housing within the urban area including the potential for residential properties within the Town Centre, especially homes for retired people, starter homes, student housing, and affordable homes;
• There is a Development Strategy which covers protection of the Green Belt from development; 
• Four concern employment, particularly at Clay Hill; 
• Three are about retail matters, with the possibility of a smaller town centre for Neston; 
• Three address tourism, a vital driver of the economy, with Parkgate the only coastal part of Cheshire (but not mentioned in the Local Plan) the NP asks for development that has no detrimental impact on residents;
• Four have plans for transport, supporting Merseyrail's recent strategy for electrifying the Borderlands Railway. A new Neston South station is considered together with better bus routes and shelters, cycle routes (which are important for tourism) and a cycle hub at an expanded Station Road car park in Parkgate with also the possibility for a bridge over the road to link the Wirral Way; 
• Four relate to design of developments, which should take note of the character of different areas, and be sustainable; 
• Six are to do with landscape, including woods and hedgerows;
• Four policies cover community matters, such as the development of Neston High School and the need to improve the Recreation Centre.

Local residents were consulted on draft proposals.

Concerning housing, the Local Plan calls for more than 20,000 houses in 20 years in Cheshire West, of which Neston would have a maximum of 200, but this was changed by the external examiner to a minimum of 200: in fact 209 are already built or planned.

A problem is that the Local Plan will not meet targets for affordable housing without possibly using Green Belt. A Key Policy of the NP is to preserve our Green Belt, but it has to comply with the Local Plan, which talks of Rural Exception Sites. The NP therefore states that we have to first use all available urban sites, then allow only small developments in the Green Belt. This policy will be included in the NP if the external examiner's proposals are adopted in the Local Plan

The draft NP has now been sent to CWaC for sustainability appraisal and strategic environmental assessment (English Heritage and Flintshire County Council, for example). They have six weeks to comment.

In December Neston Town Council will, Phil hopes, approve it, and it will be made public, in Neston Town Hall and Library, and probably in electronic format, for six weeks of public comment starting towards the end of December.

Early in 2015 it will go to CWaC, and to an External Examiner. Late in 2015 we will be asked to vote whether to accept it. If we do it will become part of the planning process, and the Town Council will be able to use it in marketing. It will be reviewed every five years.

Related content (from the same meeting):

Parkgate Vision - Future Improvements

Community Involvement

Mosquito Mitigation

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Comments

Dave Carter

At 21:32 on 31st October 2014, Dave Carter commented:

Rob, my understanding has always been that the proposed cycle hub is in Station Road, Neston, not Parkgate. Now I havesought clarification from several people associated with the Neighbourhood Plan, and nobody has yet given me different information. Perhaps Phil could clarify. Unfortunately I couldn't get to this meeting, thanks very much for this report.

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rayred57

At 11:44 on 12th November 2014, rayred57 commented:

A very clear explanation. Is the Draft Plan available as a download yet? The idea of a new additional station is a very interesting idea.

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