Welcome to the home of the Bishop Norton and Atterby Neighbourhood Plan, and the on-line home of Bishop Norton and Atterby Parish Council.
This is where you may come to see what’s going on with the development of this plan and, much more importantly, to take your part in its development. You can have your say, right here!
The logo that we have adopted for the Neighbourhood Plan, we hope that you’ll agree, is expressive of our aims and goals. The Bishop Norton and Atterby Parish Council have set the process in motion, but it is not the parish council’s plan, it is ours – all of us. The whole community of the parish!
Here are some informational links to start with:
Information Statement and Specified Documents – BNANP
Regulation 18 – Bishop Norton and Atterby NP Decision Statement update
Download the latest BNAPC Neighbourhood Plan – Referendum Version
What is it?
The idea of Neighbourhood Plans was introduced in the Localism Act, 2011. It provides a means for a community to develop a document that gives that community a real say in the planning process within their neighbourhood.
The content of the plan is up to the community. It must meet certain legal constraints, in that it must comply with the national planning regulations, the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) and the National Planning Policy Guidance (NPPG), it must also not conflict with the Local Plan (in our case the emerging Central Lincolnshire Local Plan (CLLP)). There are a few other things that it may or may not do, but these are the most important.
The CLLP is a strategic plan which addresses the overall needs of the areas covered by the City of Lincoln, West Lindsey and North Kesteven districts. The Bishop Norton and Atterby Neighbourhood Plan will seek to reflect the needs, wishes and desires of the people of this parish about how the parish will develop over the next twenty years.
Planning law now demands that a planning application be passed by the planning authority unless it can be shown to be in breach of the existing planning policies. The Bishop Norton and Atterby Neighbourhood Plan (BNANP), if adopted, will be a fundamental part of those policies, carrying the same weight as the CLLP in any decision taken within the parish boundaries.
Is it just about Houses?
No. It is all about a sustainable community. The plan can legitimately provide policies about local transport, health and well-being of the people, or indeed anything else that is not contrary to the rules mentioned earlier. It cannot, for example, have a policy banning wind-farms because they are specifically out of the scope of a neighbourhood plan.
The plan does need to be concerned about demographics, and everything that derives from that in the context of a sparsely populated rural parish such as ours. Healthcare, schooling, access to services, employment opportunities, communications etc. The plan will not provide the solutions, but it can enable and help facilitate their provision.
The UK government has set targets for developing new homes, and even entire new communities, along with many other economic and other factors that need to be planned for. The CLLP is a distillation of these targets set in the context of the economic and social setting of central Lincolnshire.
The CLLP has defined a settlement hierarchy with the City of Lincoln being at the top, followed by market towns, other towns, larger villages, smaller villages and then hamlets and others. The targets for growth are applied to settlements based on their ranking in the hierarchy.
Housing Stock Growth Targets
In the case of Bishop Norton, the village is ranked as a small village and currently is targeted with expanding its housing stock by about ten per cent. There are technical reasons why this is not yet a firm target for growth, but it is not yet clear what that target will be.
The CLLP growth targets are supposed to be based on a housing needs assessment and the supply of land sufficient to provide that growth. There is currently doubt about their calculations. However, one of the overarching rules about neighbourhood plans is that they must provide development opportunities. Our Steering Group will be investigating these needs to ensure that our plan, as it emerges, is compliant and robust enough to withstand any legal challenges, whilst meeting the needs for sustainable development going forward.
Atterby has the status of a hamlet in the CLLP. It therefore carries no obligations for housing growth, and any developers will need to demonstrate a need in the context of supporting the local economic needs or another deciding factor. The BNANP policies will be critical in any such decision as with any other planning decision within the parish.
Other parts of the parish are not targeted with housing growth, but these may all have needs based on future economic developments that are not immediately obvious now.
Economic Growth
Ours is a small sparsely populated rural parish, so what is the future of its local economy? Historically, the economy has been dominated by activities and enterprises linked to agriculture. In times past most of the population would have had a direct link to the growing of crops or the husbandry of animals. Those times are now long past. Mechanization and greater efficiencies in farming methods have meant fewer jobs. Nonetheless, the land in the parish is productive and will serve to maintain the position of agriculture as the principal economic activity.
The reduction in the need for farm-workers has created a surplus of tied or other housing previously needed for them. The local population has, in consequence, undergone a transformation whereby there is now a local population made up of a significant proportion of relative newcomers with a far different life-style and economic activity profile than parishioners in the past. Part of this project will be focused on gathering evidence of those activities. There are, we know, a fair number of small businesses operating within the parish. What we may not know is how they might grow, and whether any such expansion has development needs that should be considered in our plan.
Demographic Changes and Pressures for Change
This project will try to ascertain the current demographic profile of the people within the parish. This will serve as underpinning evidence for everything else that we do. Some have identified that there is an aging population; others have identified that there are now more young people and children than in the recent past. Perhaps both statements are true?
The questions that we will need to grapple with – and these will inevitably lead to more questionnaires for everyone; how do we ensure that older people, perhaps without their own vehicle, are guaranteed continued access to services. How will the local schools cope with an influx of young Bishop Nortonians or Atterbians? Come to that, how will they safely travel to school? What sort of activities will the leisure times of young and old be filled with – and can they be fulfilled within the parish?
With a demand for growth in housing, there is a natural logic to assume a growth in population. Will this larger population create the critical mass sufficient for the successful reintroduction facilities that have long-since been lost to the village – a shop, for example? Should the plan be mindful of potential development of that sort?
Access to Services
Ours is a parish almost mid-way between four, or even five, much larger settlements. To the north, Scunthorpe (and Brigg), to the south Lincoln, to the east Market Rasen, and to the west Gainsborough. Most of our local services are provided by one or more of these places. Although there are also shops, doctors, and other services in Kirton-in-Lindsey, Hibaldstow, Glentham, Normanby-by-Spital and Waddingham. Local pubs can be found in Glentham, Snitterby and Waddingham. Excepting the part-time post-office in Bishop Norton and a few gate entrance foodstuffs offers, such as honey in Atterby, the local facilities here within the parish are non-existent.
Obviously, we have a very useful facility in the Village Hall, but that can only provide opportunities for, rather than providing actual services. Currently, it is the permanent host for an indoor bowls club and a regular monthly lunch-club. Despite the hard work of the Village Hall Committee in trying to attract new events or services, the hall remains underused. Are there opportunities arising from this potential population growth, or for providing facilities currently not available?
The Localism Act 2011, in addition to Neighbourhood Plans, also provides for Community Rights to Build and Neighbourhood Planning Orders. These might be useful tools, in conjunction with known funding opportunities, for bringing any emergent policies in our plans to fruition.
The following links are documents that we have researched and created in support of the development of this plan. We would be happy to receive comments back about them. Simply use the email address: theplan@bishopnortonandatterby.org.uk
Historical and Archaeological Assessment of the parish
General Landscape Character Assessment