Thank you to everybody who attended our consultation on the Edenfield Neighbourhood Plan on 29th February. It was very pleasing to see so much interest shown by residents in our plans for the future of the village.
Thanks also for all your comments which we will take into account when we update our plans.
To: all residents and businesses of Edenfield
Saturday 29th February 10am to 2pm
Edenfield Community Centre, Exchange Street
A Neighbourhood Plan is a community-led framework for guiding the future development and growth of an area. Over the last eighteen months the Forum Management Committee has been working on a Neighbourhood Plan for the village. We now need your views on the work we have done and how you would like to see the village develop in the future. We will then take this information into account when finalising the Plan before it is put to Rossendale Council and an independent examiner.
If you would like a say in how Edenfield will evolve in the years to come or if you just want to see what is going on please call in and see us at the Community Centre anytime between 10am and 2pm on Saturday 29th February. There will be free tea, coffee and biscuits.
More information on Neighbourhood Plans can be found on the Locality website www.neighbourhoodplanning.org or by contacting us via this website: http://edenfieldcommunityforum.uk/contact-ecnf/
The Inspectors have now issued their post Hearings letter to the Council which is available to view on the RBC website. The letter does not contain any views on the soundness of the Draft Local Plan due to the amount of information that the Inspectors still require from the Council before they can complete their assessment.
The timetable for provision of this information (Schedule of Actions) has also been made available on the RBC website. This indicates that it will take about six months for all the information to be provided.
Some proposed modifications to the Plan were agreed between the Inspectors and the Council during the Hearings and they have now been collated and are also available on the RBC website (List of Main Modifications).
The link for all of these documents is:
https://www.rossendale.gov.uk/downloads/download/11276/examination_library_6_-_further_documents_following_the_close_of_hearings
The Inspectors’ letter mentioned above, requests the Council to produce a revised indicative timetable for production of the Local Plan. Once this is published we will have a better idea of when to expect the Inspectors’ final views on the Plan and the effect it will have on the future of our village. We will give a further update after this timetable is published.
The Public Examination Hearings on the Rossendale Local Plan chaired by the independent Inspectors ended on 10th October after eighteen sessions spread over nine days. Our planning consultants and Forum representatives participated in thirteen of these sessions and Forum representatives observed the others.
The Hearings concluded with the Inspectors requesting further information from the Council which they require before being able to make a decision on the soundness of the Plan. The Council had until 25th October to submit a timetable for providing the information on the list. The Inspectors will soon be able to issue their own timetable for the continuation of their review of the Local Plan and any other necessary actions such as any further public consultation.
It seems that it will be some time before we have a decision on Edenfield’s Green Belt. We will update the situation as and when we have further information.
ECNF, together with our planning consultants (Troy Planning & Design) have now submitted our Hearing Statements to the Planning Inspectors in advance of the Examination Hearings which will start on 24th September.
These can be seen on the Examination pages of the Council’s website
The main matter numbers that concern Edenfield are 7,8, 14 and 19.
The Forum’s latest newsletter will be delivered to all homes and businesses in Edenfield in the next few days and is also available to view here : http://edenfieldcommunityforum.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Newsletter-August-2019.pdf .
The newsletter explains more about the work we and our planning advisors are doing to stop the release of village Green Belt land for development. This work centres on preparation for and attendance at the Public Hearings being held by the independent Planning Inspectors as part of their examination of the Council’s Draft Local Plan. The support for our fund raising so far has been excellent for which we are very grateful. However we estimate that we still need about another £7,000 to make sure that we can present the best possible case to the Inspectors at the examination.
Please support our efforts to save our village – details of how you can donate are in the newsletter.
The Inspectors have now issued details of the public examination on the Council’s Draft Local Plan. The hearings will take place between Tuesday 24th September and Friday 11th October at the Council offices at Futures Park, Bacup. Edenfield Community Neighbourhood Forum (ECNF) and our planning consultants will participate in all sessions relevant to Edenfield. The general public can attend but only to observe.
The Inspectors have also issued an extensive list of MIQs (Matters, Issues and Questions) to all those who submitted representations to the Draft Local Plan in October last year and requested participation in the hearings. People or groups such as ECNF who made representations can make Hearing Statements on any of the listed matters, these have to be submitted by 30th August. The Forum will be submitting statements on all relevant matters.
Full details of the MIQs and the arrangements for the examination are available on the Council’s website at: https://www.rossendale.gov.uk/info/210148/local_plan/10629/emerging_local_plan/2
The planning inspectors have started to post information on the RBC website. This can be found under “Latest News” on the following page: https://www.rossendale.gov.uk/info/210148/local_plan/10629/emerging_local_plan/2
The inspectors have started to request information from RBC. This includes information related to Edenfield (paragraphs 5 and 6 under general of EL1.002a.)
They also say that they will be available for the public examination 2-3 weeks before 22nd September when the planning hearings are due to commence.
The Inspector, the Programme Officer (and, we assume, RBC) will post updates in this section of the website as necessary.
