Lyme Regis Sailing Club on the Brink?

Planning committees are willing to override officers' recommendations for refusal and approve, but rarely the other way, because they're scared of funding an appeal that is likely to be lost.

"I am surprised anyone stands for the Parish council since anything that they decide gets overruled by District for the reasons stated"


I am an ex-Parish Councillor.

Parish Councils don't decide planning matters. All they can "decide" is to make a comment to the Planning Authority, which around here is the District Council. In theory such comments carry no special weight. In practice Parish Councils know how to relate comments to policy, which can actually make a difference, whereas residents think opinion of itself counts for something, which it pretty much does not unless related to policy.

Yes it's hard to get people to stand,   even harder to get them to stay more than one term and Parish Councils elections around here are never contested.



Edited by blueboy - 24 Jan 16 at 7:36am

Originally posted by blueboy Originally posted by Riv Neighbour hood plans are powerful pieces of law and over ride local government plans. It's not suprising that councils may feel like moving quickly before their options are limitted by the democratic process. I was much involved in developing a Parish Plan. They are not law at all or even a statement of policy, it's essentially an information basis for development of policy. Can be usefully cited in comments on planning applications and that's about as far as it goes. Democratic, well, residents don't actually  vote on neighbourhood plans. There are reasonable checks that they reflect residents' views but they are also influenced by the self-selected teams that develop them (and I should know).

I know this is boring but it's also important as A Parish Plan is very definitely not a Neighbourhood plan. A Neighbourhood plan has legal status:

"A neighbourhood plan must address the development and use of land. This is because if successful at examination and referendum the neighbourhood plan will become part of the statutory development plan once it has been made (brought into legal force) by the planning authority. Applications for planning permission must be determined in accordance with the development plan, unless material considerations indicate otherwise"

(http://planningguidance.communities.gov.uk/blog/guidance/neighbourhood-planning/what-is-neighbourhood-planning/what-is-a-neighbourhood-plan-and-what-is-its-relationship-to-a-local-plan/)

A Neighbourhood plan cannot be against development. It cannot say "No" but it can say where  development will happen and what it will be like.

My village is suffering from the lack of a Neighbourhood plan. A prime open waterside site that the community has enjoyed and used for the last 50 years is being sold off and developed into an exclusive waterside set of managed properties for the over 55s. It removes a view the community has cherished and a space we have all enjoyed.

If we had had a neighbour hood plan we could have said that though the site maybe developed that this sort of development was not appropriate and the developer would have gone somewhere else to make his exclusive ghetto. ( Salcombe I expect:) We could then have had a development which took into account the views of the entire village and did not make such a dire impact.

One problem with Neighbourhood plans is that if they are done by the Parish Council there can be conflicts of interests. Many Parish Councillors are landowners or socialise with landownwers. The Neighbour hood plan may restrict ( but does not remove) the landowner's ability to realise the value of their land.

Hi Noah,

Yes Parish Plans are very different to NPs

It's worth looking at some good NPs such as Drayton Nr Abingdon and Tattenhall and some that failed such as Aldingbourne.

Many Parish Councils are employing professionals to do the NPs for them. There are plenty of underemployed planners about these days!

The whole thing seems to hinge on the level of community involvement.