Edenfield Neighbourhood Plan – explanations
What is a Neighbourhood Plan?
A Neighbourhood Plan is a planning document that guides and shapes development in a designated area. Neighbourhood plans are prepared by town or parish councils or specially established neighbourhood forums in consultation with the community.
What is the history of the Edenfield Neighbourhood Plan?
The Edenfield Community Neighbourhood Forum was established in 2018 for the purpose of both challenging the Council’s proposals to allocate a large area of land in Edenfield for development and for preparing a Neighbourhood Plan. The Forum had to be designated by the Rossendale Borough Council as both Neighbourhood Forums and Neighbourhood Plans are regulated.
Consultants funded by government grants were engaged who worked with the Forum Management Committee to draft the Plan which included a detailed Design Code. During the period 2018 to 2023 there was extensive work on drafting the Plan including a village-wide questionnaire, resident workshops and consultation events. In 2024 the final draft of the Plan was submitted to the Council who then arranged an independent examination. After minor revisions the Plan was the subject of a referendum in early 2025.
Completion of the Neighbourhood Plan took much longer than originally anticipated due to the COVID-19 pandemic, delays in grant funding being made available and the Management Committee being heavily involved in challenging the H66 development at the same time.
What is the Edenfield Neighbourhood Area?
Under the regulations a Neighbourhood Forum has to represent a defined Neighbourhood Area and ideally the boundaries should be clearly delineated by, for example, roads and watercourses. The boundaries of the Edenfield Neighbourhood Area were suggested by the Council and agreed, after public consultation, at the same time as the Forum was designated in 2018.
Only residents living in the Neighbourhood Area can be members of the Forum and are entitled to vote in Neighbourhood Plan referendums. The map of the Edenfield Neighbourhood Area can be viewed on the Forum website. Neighbourhood-Area.pdf
How will the Neighbourhood Plan be used?
Now that the Plan is on the point of being adopted the policies in the Plan will be used by Rossendale Council when considering any planning applications in the Neighbourhood Area. The policies are on Pages 17 to 50 of the Plan and cover nine criteria including housing, design, heritage assets, community facilities and transport and travel.
It should be borne in mind that the policies cannot conflict with those in the Rossendale Local Plan or the National Planning Policy Framework. If there had been any conflict the Plan would not have been approved by the independent examiner.
How has the Council been involved?
The Council were not involved in the drafting of the Neighbourhood Plan except for being consulted in the same way as other statutory consultees and residents. Their help was invaluable in ensuring that there was no conflict with Council policies.
The Council were responsible for arranging the independent examination with input from the Forum and for arranging the referendum.
Will there be changes to the Neighbourhood Plan in the future?
The Forum will monitor any Edenfield planning applications to ensure that the Council take account of the Neighbourhood Plan policies. The Plan is in place until 2036 but it may be that in the intervening years there are changes in planning legislation, national policy or local plan policy necessitating changes to the Plan. The extent of any modifications would determine whether another referendum is necessary.
Where can I see the Edenfield Neighbourhood Plan?
The referendum version of the Plan can be viewed on the Neighbourhood Forum website:
Neighbourhood-Plan-Referendum-version.pdf
