The next stage is to work on designating the Neighbourhood Plan Area, which is recommended to be the Town Council boundary, the Lynton and Lynmouth Neighbourhood Plan Steering Group said, at a meeting (7-pages / 154 KB PDF).
"It is anticipated that the Plan will be drafted during the summer and then consultation will take place in the Autumn," the Steering Group said. The Town Council is then required to undertake formal consultation with the local community and specified organisations and is required to allow at least 6 weeks for this process to be completed.
The Town Council may then update the Plan in the light of the representations, before submitting the Neighbourhood Plan to the Local Planning Authority.
A key part of the process is to engage with landowners and understand their aspirations for sites, the Steering Group said. Any proposals which come forward will need to be viable and have support from both the landowner and the community if they are to be included in the Plan.
Housing need has been highlighted by the local community in a recent questionnaire undertaken by the Steering Group, which showed that 50% of the 90 returned questionnaires identified local housing need as an important issue.
However, respondents to the questionnaire also said that it was for the Plan preparations to provide clear information about what the project could offer businesses. The Neighbourhood Plan must be seen as something more than just a plan to address local housing need.
Exmoor National Park Authority Planning Officers will assist with drafting of the various papers so that the Steering Group and the Town Council can concentrate work on the detail of the Plan, the Steering Group said. "It is acknowledged that this can be considered to be a relatively long and detailed process," it said.
If the Neighbourhood Plan is adopted following the local referendum, it will become part of the statutory development plan and planning decisions would have to be made in accordance with it.
"The Plan will become an important local planning document which will influence what is and what is not possible on sites in and around Lynton, Lynmouth and Barbrook," the Steering Group said.
The Department for Communities and Local Government has written to the Steering Group to advise them that the regulations for Neighbourhood Planning came into force in April 2012 but said that "the regulations for the referendum process remained the subject of public consultation which included a proposal that the referendum could be combined with other elections or polls in the local area".
