Neighbourhood Plan moves to the next stage

A HUGE thank you to everyone that took the time and effort to read and submit comments on the draft Melksham Neighbourhood Plan in the summer. 

Melksham Without Parish Council report, “The 8-week regulation 14 public consultation took place during June and July. The steering group, made up of members of Melksham Without Parish Council, Melksham Town Council, Wiltshire Council and local community members met virtually in August, September and October to review each and every comment and amended policies and updated evidence documents as appropriate. 

“They also made recommendations on what to do about issues raised by residents that are out of the scope of the plan, which has to reflect planning policy and land use only.  Issues raised about the proposed A350 Melksham Bypass and the Campus Project are out of the scope of the plan.

“The final version of the plan was then approved by the steering group and the two qualifying bodies (Melksham Town Council and Melksham Without Parish Council) on Monday 26th October at their respective council meetings. 

“That completed the regulation 15 stage of the process, and the plan was then submitted at the beginning of November to Wiltshire Council. They are now undertaking their own formal consultation at regulation 16 stage, this will give you as local people who live, work and run a business in the plan area another chance to have your say. 

“To view all the comments, and the revised plan and evidence comments please go to the dedicated website www.melkshamneighbourhoodplan.org/.  

“We have tried to make the documents as accessible as possible and so the main documents you are probably looking for are highlighted in bright yellow (the plan and the consultation statement.  Appendix 4 of the consultation statement has all your comments and the responses).  Any document that has been revised since the summer is coloured red and labelled “NEW”.  There was also some feedback that some of the figures/maps in the plan were hard to read, and you were unable to zoom in and look at the detail, and these have now been uploaded separately so that you can do that. 

“Look out for more updates in the Melksham News as the plan progresses, you can also visit the website and dedicated Facebook page.

What next?

“The steering group is now looking to the next version of the plan, which will cover topics such as local green spaces, housing, town centre master plan and environmental issues.  They are keen to encourage new members of the community to get involved and if you are interested in finding out more, please get in touch with either Melksham Without Parish Council (clerk@melkshamwithout.co.uk) or Melksham Town Council (clerk@melksham-tc.gov.uk) in the first instance. 

Draft Joint Melksham 

Neighbourhood Plan 2020-2030

Regulation 16 Consultation

Wiltshire Council is currently consulting on the proposed draft Joint Melksham Neighbourhood Plan, which has been formally submitted by Melksham Town Council and Melksham Without Parish Council.

Following this consultation, the comments received will be passed to an independent examiner who will consider the representations and recommend whether the draft Neighbourhood Plan should be put to a community referendum. 

The consultation starts on Wednesday 2nd December 2020 and responses must be received no later than 5pm on Wednesday 3rd February 2021.

Please be aware that all representations will be publicly available and may also appear on the Wiltshire Council website.

Further information including the submitted draft neighbourhood plan and how to comment can be found online via: www.wiltshire.gov.uk/planning-neighbourhood-consultations

Where possible, please provide any comments using the Consultation Portal.  Alternatively, an editable representation form can be downloaded from the Supporting Documents section on the consultation portal, and completed forms can either be emailed to or sent by post to: Spatial Planning Team, Economic Development and Planning, Wiltshire Council,County Hall, Bythesea Road, Trowbridge. BA14 8JN

If you have no access to the internet and you wish to view the draft neighbourhood plan, a copy can be sent to you on request by calling neighbourhood planning on 01225 713598 or 770354.

Following this consultation, the comments received will be passed to an independent examiner, to be appointed by the council, who will consider the representations and recommend whether the draft Neighbourhood Plan should be put to a community referendum.

If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact Spatial Planning on: Tel: 01225 713598 or by email to neighbourhoodplanning@wiltshire.gov.uk