What is a Parish Design Statement?

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A Parish (or Village) Design Statement is a set of guidelines which fleshes out the design-related policies in the Neighbourhood Plan,   The aim is to help people put together planning applications (or supporting documents for any other developments, such as those covered by 'permitted development') which stand a good chance of acceptance by the National Park Authority.

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Who's involved?

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The members of the working group were:

• Gilly Gale

• Kate Elliott

• Andrea Hardisty

• Sally Morris

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Chris Paterson of the South Downs National Park Authority has provided advice throughout.

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What's happened so far?

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The group identified a set of proposed planning guidelines, based on what residents told us (both in the original Neighbourhood Plan consultation, and in our subsequent parish walks and well attended open meetings).  Then we conducted a survey of every household in the Parish, to find out what you thought of the proposed guidelines.  While they were all supported by a significant majority, you did provide some useful suggestions for re-wording or clarification.

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Based on your responses, we revised the guidelines and these were approved by the Parish Council.

The working group also produced extensive supporting background text, including a detailed inventory of every building in the Parish, supplemented with numerous photos old and new; the Parish Council approved the complete document.

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The document was then revised further in the light of Chris Paterson's advice (including combining some of the guidelines, and omitting others which are already fully covered in the Clapham Neighbourhood Development Plan and/or the South Downs Local Plan); the revised version has been approved by the Parish Council and has now been formally submitted to SDNPA

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What happens next?

 

We have two rounds of formal public consultation; the second one started on 19th August and runs until 30th September.  Do please respond, even if only to say you support the planning guidelines as they stand. 

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Summary of proposed planning guidelines

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Full consultation version

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Appendices

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Consultation details

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Once consultations are complete (with any further changes that are needed), and SDNPA have  approved the document, it will officially become part of the Clapham Neighbourhood Development Plan (a 'supplementary planning document'). This will mean that all the planning guidelines have to be taken into account whenever a planning application is considered; the Parish Council will make sure that SDNPA do so!

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