Great Tey Neighbourhood Plan 2022-2033 (Regulation 16)

(2) 1 INTRODUCTION

What this document is

1.1 This document represents the Neighbourhood Plan for the parish of Great Tey for the period 2022 to 2033. The Plan contains a vision for the future of Great Tey and sets out clear planning policies to realise this vision.

Purpose of the plan

1.2 The principal purpose of the Neighbourhood Plan is to guide development within the parish. It also provides guidance to anyone wishing to submit a planning application for development within the parish. The process of producing a plan has sought to involve the community as widely as possible. The different topic areas are reflective of matters that are of considerable importance to Great Tey, its residents, businesses and community groups. It should be noted that planning applications are submitted to and determined by Colchester City Council. However, the Neighbourhood Plan forms part of the development plan and therefore is given equal weight to the Colchester Local Plan in the decision-making process.

1.3 Some of the Neighbourhood Plan policies are general and apply throughout the Plan area, whilst others are site or area-specific and apply only to the appropriate areas illustrated on the relevant map. Nevertheless, in considering proposals for development, Colchester City Council will apply all relevant policies of the Plan. It is therefore assumed that the Plan will be read as a whole, although some cross-referencing between Plan policies has been provided.

1.4 The process of producing the Neighbourhood Plan has identified a number of actions which have not been included in the policies' sections. This is because these are not specifically related to land use matters and therefore sit outside the jurisdiction of a Neighbourhood Plan. These actions will be addressed by the Parish Council outside of the Neighbourhood Plan process. They are presented in the pink boxes, each with a heading 'Non-Policy Action'.

Policy context

1.5 The Neighbourhood Plan represents one part of the development plan for the neighbourhood area over the period 2022 to 2033, the other part being the Colchester Local Plan (Sections 1 and 2). Essex County Council is the Minerals and Waste Authority for the Plan area and is responsible for the production of mineral and waste local plans. The Development Plan in Great Tey therefore also comprises of the Essex Minerals Local Plan 2014 (MLP) and the Essex and Southend-on-Sea Waste Local Plan 2017 (WLP). These plans set out the policy framework within which minerals and waste planning applications are assessed. They also contain policies which safeguard known mineral bearing land from sterilisation, and existing, permitted and allocated mineral and waste infrastructure from proximal development which may compromise their operation.

1.6 Colchester City Council, as the local planning authority, designated the Great Tey Neighbourhood Area in June 2017 to enable Great Tey Parish Council to prepare the Neighbourhood Plan. The Plan has been prepared by the community through the Great Tey Neighbourhood Plan Steering Group.

1.7 The Neighbourhood Plan has been prepared in accordance with the Town & Country Planning Act 1990, the Planning & Compulsory Purchase Act 2004, the Localism Act 2011 and the Neighbourhood Planning Regulations 2012 (which were amended in 2015). The Neighbourhood Plan Steering Group has prepared the plan to establish a vision for the future of the parish and to set out how that vision will be realised through planning and controlling land use and development change over the plan period.

1.8 The map in Figure 1.1 below shows the boundary of the Neighbourhood Plan area, which is the same as the administrative boundary of Great Tey parish.

Figure 1.1: Great Tey neighbourhood plan area

How our Neighbourhood Plan was created

Process

1.9 In early 2017 Colchester City Council issued its draft Local Plan Section 2, including Policy SS8 covering Great Tey, which proposed two site allocations for new dwellings in the village (land off Greenfield Drive and land on Brook Road – see Figure 1.2).

Figure 1.2: Site allocations in Colchester Local Plan Section 2

1.10 Following well-attended open meetings in February 2017 Great Tey Parish Council undertook to produce a Neighbourhood Plan (NP). A request for neighbourhood area designation of the entire parish of Great Tey by the newly formed Neighbourhood Plan Group (NPG) on behalf of the Parish Council was approved in June 2017.

1.11 On 30th September 2017 a drop-in meeting was held in the village hall, at which parishioners were invited to give their views on a number of issues concerning future development in the community. Over the next few months members of the NPG attended meetings of a range of groups in the community to ascertain their views.

1.12 The responses were collated and analysed, then used to produce a Public Consultation Review. This document was published on the Village website and publicised by means of the village newsletter in June 2019.

1.13 In October 2019 the NPG issued a Call for Sites to all landowners in the Parish inviting them to put forward sites for consideration for residential use. In response three sites were proposed. One of these was a long-range vision by a local landowner which comprised a number of uses, including residential development and an extension to an existing commercial site.

1.14 Following meetings with the landowners and potential developers of the land off Greenfield Drive, the NPG issued a survey in November 2020 inviting parishioners to give their views on the three sites put forward, as well as on the proposed options for the layout of the Greenfield Drive site allocation. It should be noted that at this time the Local Plan Section 2 site allocation of land on Brook Road had already come forward for development.

1.15 The responses to this survey were collated and analysed and, along with responses to previous community engagement exercises, were used to formulate the Vision and Objectives for our Neighbourhood Plan. It also informed the decision not to allocate further sites in addition to the two site allocations already in the Local Plan Section 2.

Monitoring the Plan

1.16 Great Tey Parish Council, as the responsible body, will be responsible for maintaining and periodically revisiting the Plan to ensure relevance and to monitor delivery throughout the period of the plan to 2033.