Stalham Neighbourhood Plan
What is Neighbourhood planning?
A Neighbourhood plan is a document that sets out planning policies for a local area.
It’s used to decide whether to approve planning applications, including new buildings (e.g. community facilities) or changes to existing buildings (e.g. giving permission to change the upper floors of shops to flats).
It’s written by the local community, the people who know and love the area, to ensure the community gets the right types of development, in the right place. Neighbourhood planning is supported by central government through the Localism Act.
Stalham Town Council has initiated a Steering Group made up of local residents to work alongside Collective Community Planning, professional local consultants who specialise in Neighbourhood Development Plans to produce a Neighbourhood Development Plan for Stalham. This project including technical support and consultant fees has been fully grant funded and supported to date through Locality. If you want to get involved or for further information please contact the Clerk, clerk@stalham-tc.gov.uk.
Press Release September 2022
Stalham Town Council has enabled a steering group comprised of both Councillors and local residents to work alongside a
consultant to create a Neighbourhood Development Plan. Any interested residents are welcome to come along to any of the
meetings or get involved. Next Meeting 20th October, 4pm at Stalham Poppy Centre.
Since the completion of the consultation process the group has been gathering
evidence which the plan can be created from. The group has also identified, assessed and mapped green spaces and green corridors for the benefit of wildlife.
Members have been mapping views in and around the town and have started to look at our heritage buildings. This evidence will allow key characteristics of the town to be identified and included in the plan with a view to preservation and enhancement.
To help us with this, we have acquired a grant to enable professional assistance to carry out a Housing Needs Assessment and Design Code report. These experts are coming to assess the High Street and design of our Town with yet another group looking at the housing needs in Stalham.
North Norfolk District Council has a housing crisis and members have met with District Planners to discuss these issues. In the next month or two we will begin to draw up some ideas about what we can do to ensure that Stalham remains a “Rural Town” with a strong community in a spectacular environment.
The administration for the Group is undertaken by Assistant Clerk Lolly Dawson, please contact the Parish Office if you would like more information or to be involved in any way.
Press Release October 2021
NEIGHBOURHOOD DEVELOPMENT PLAN MOVES FORWARD
Stalham Town Council has agreed to undertake a Neighbourhood Development Plan, covering the whole of the Parish of Stalham. This will create a Planning document which is specific to Stalham and will stand alongside the National and Local Planning Policies as Planning Law.
The plan will be created in response to community feedback and local issues and will offer the opportunity for local residents to address local planning issues.
The Town Council will be the lead authority, however there will be a Steering Group made up of members of the Community who will be working together with the Council and Councillors to undertake the work necessary and provide the evidence that informs the plans development.
The first public meeting took place on Tuesday 19th October at the Town Hall and over 60 people attended. The presentation was extremely informative and covered the work that will be necessary, policies that can be included, how to collate evidence and the support that Community Collective Planning will offer as the chosen consultant.
Great initial progress has already been made to kickstart this project; the Area of Designation has been applied for and approved; Collective Community Planning Consultants have been appointed to work through this with the volunteer Steering Group, and grant applications are in hand. It is hoped that the costs incurred will be largely defrayed by grants available as the project moves forward.
The consultation period ran through out March and volunteers have been out and about talking to various people and
distributed a survey to as many people connected to Stalham as possible. The results have recently been published and a pleasing 349 people have offered their views and insights; this can now be used as evidence to support policy, thank you to everyone who filled in a survey. The steering group is now looking at the allocation of green spaces and views.
It is not too late to be involved –contact the Assistant Town Clerk on: office@stalhamtowncouncil.org to be added to the information list to be kept updated, or to volunteer to be an active member of the Steering Group.
