Monday, June 25, 2012

A Surfeit of Democracy? Yet Another Consultation on the South Somerset Local Plan

The third round of consultations is about to start on the South Somerset Local Plan, this time on a redraft of the plan being submitted to the Government for approval. There's the traditional 6 week consultation period, starting on June 28th (this Thursday) until August 10th. The plan covers housing, employment etc. for the area up to 2028.

Headlines from the latest draft are here, and will be familiar to anyone who knows the story so far. There's no change in the proposals from earlier this year, and the heated public consultation on the 'Urban Extension' of 2500 houses. The plan is still to build just over 1500 of these by 2028, and the rest after the end of the period, to the S  of Yeovil with a buffer Zone between the development and the village of East Coker.

The full plan will be available for download here later this week. From personal experience, it is worth having a look if you've got the time, and putting in a response. I put in quite a few responses in the first consultation phase, and at least 2 seem to have got a result: a reduction in a bizarrely large allocation of space for changing rooms, compared to other community facilities, and the recognition of the Cambridge Horizons study on faith facilities in new housing developments, on which some of the recommendations for the urban extension are now based.

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