All of the high resolution images included in the Neighbourhood Plan can be found in our Picture Gallery.

The following documents are the final versions of documents which have been developed since 2017 to 2nd November 2021 by the Steering Group and Parish Council Committee. They lay out the Plan, the supporting policies and data used to come to their final drafts. There is always tweeks and improvements to be made but the line has to be drawn to allow the process to continue. Once the Plan is examined (by an external verifier) it will (hopefully) return to the parish for a referendum to accept or reject it. Then the work will begin again to keep it current. Please take time to read the attached documents so that when we do go to referendum you will know what is being debated. Thank you.

Fig 16 of Witherley Neighbourhood Development Plan to be posted as soon as possible.

See the link above to the Hi-Res images in the Gallery

The Regulation 14 public consultation period is now closed and any comments submitted after the deadline will not be included.

Thank you to everyone who has commented, your contribution is appreciated.

The Regulation 14 consultation closed last Friday. However, as Hinckley & Bosworth Borough Council asked for more time to submit their consultation response, the NDP Committee agreed today that the consultation should be extended for all until 11.59pm, Friday 22nd January. Any responses that missed last Friday's deadline will still be considered.

Witherley Parish Council invites representations on its Draft Pre-submission Neighbourhood Development Plan (NDP). This is a formal public consultation being run in accordance with Regulation 14 of The Neighbourhood Planning (General) Regulations 2012.

The consultation period runs from Friday 20^th November until 23.59 on Friday 8^th January 2021.

What is this consultation about?

We are consulting on the Draft Plan and associated evidence base. We are looking to gather the views of all stakeholders, particularly those who live, work or carry on business in the Parish. These views may relate to the proposed policies, the content and wording of the Draft NDP, whether the evidence base is appropriate/correct, whether the Draft NDP is missing anything, or anything else you would like to bring to our attention. Please be as specific as possible when providing your comments. If you have any views on the documents, we want to hear them so that we can take them into account.

Once these views have been gathered the Draft Pre-submission NDP and its associated documents will be amended as appropriate before being submitted to Hinckley & Bosworth Borough Council.

How can you view the Consultation Documents?

The consultation documents can be viewed or downloaded by clicking on each document below:

To aid the processing of comments it would be appreciated if the Response Form provided is used to register your comments. Other submissions are acceptable, for example by letter or email but all must include a name, address and, if relevant, the organisation you are representing.

Anonymous responses will not be accepted and any that are considered to contain inappropriate language, defamation or are deemed to be offensive may not be accepted.

Comments received after midnight on Friday 8th January 2021 will not be considered in preparing the final document for submission to Hinckley & Bosworth Borough Council.

A response form can be downloaded by clicking on the link below:

Response Forms and comments in other formats can be submitted:

By Email: return the completed Response Form (or a scan of it) to:

witherleyparishreg14@outlook.com

By Post: mail your completed Response Form to:

WPNDP c/o Parish Clerk, Cool Hill Farm, Sibson Road, Sheepy Parva, Atherstone, CV9 3RE.

What will we do with your data?

All personal information will be processed in accordance with the Parish Council's Data Protection Policies.

A summary of all representations received will be made public when the NDP is submitted to Hinckley & Bosworth Borough Council for examination. This may include verbatim comments received. Your personal details will not be made public.

It's the very nature of the regulations covering the creation of a NDP that progress has been so slow. So, thank you for your patience as we've sought to overcome a number of procedural obstacles.

Since our last update, we've been waiting for Hinckley & Bosworth Borough Council (HBBC) to tell us if a Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) is required. HBBC has employed consultants to undertake this work but it's hoped that we'll hear the result very soon, and that if no SEA is required, we can get on with the first formal public consultation.

Given the worry and upset caused by inaccurate information being circulated within the Parish, it's important that people reserve judgement until they see all the documents and read the details for themselves. Nothing has been decided, the Plan is still a DRAFT and the public can still influence it.

Despite the impact of Covid-19 and the imminent second lockdown, the six-week Regulation 14 consultation can still go ahead. The Draft Plan and all the supporting documentation will be available on the Parish Council website and residents will be able to read them and comment on the proposals. Each comment that is received will be logged and reviewed and, if appropriate, changes to the Draft Plan can be made before it is formally submitted to the Borough Council for them to carry out their own consultation.

In normal times, besides being available online, a hard copy of the Draft Plan and the supporting documents would be available to view at venues like churches during the consultation. That isn't possible now because of the pandemic so, to compensate, an Executive Summary of the Draft Plan is being produced and a copy will be mailed to every property in the parish together with details of how and where to send a response.

So, as soon as the start date for the public consultation is decided, we'll let you know.

Over the past few months, progress on development of the Witherley Parish Neighbourhood Development Plan has continued despite the Covid-19 restrictions. However, continuing delays caused by work on the environmental and heritage aspects of the Plan not meeting agreed deadlines set back progress by around six months. The housing and community sustainability elements had been completed so the Steering Group Chairman asked the Parish Council to disband the Group.

On the 1^st May the Parish Council agreed and set up a committee of councillors to take the work forward. The Council's consultants were also tasked with ensuring the outstanding elements were finalised so that the formal review process by the Borough Council could start.

The draft Plan is now being reviewed by Hinckley & Bosworth to see if a formal Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) is required. This is designed to determine if the Plan is likely to have any significant effects on the environment. It's hoped that, because the Plan contains robust policies to protect the local environment, this won't be required.

Once the question of a SEA has been resolved, the residents of the Parish, stakeholder organisations and statutory bodies will then have an opportunity to comment on the draft Plan in a six-week long Regulation 14 consultation. The draft Plan with all appendices will be available to view on the Council's website. All comments and responses will be recorded and reviewed by the Parish Council. The Plan is then sent to Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council where it is validated and processes are checked, and any amendments made.

The Plan will then be sent to all statutory bodies again as part of a further consultation (Regulation 16) before an Independent Examiner will determine if it meets strategic planning policies.

Finally, the Borough Council approves the Plan for referendum of all electors in the Parish. If more than 50% vote in favour, the Plan is brought into legal force.

Towards the end of February three informal drop-in events were held to show residents the work we have done, as we were at the final stages of completing the Draft Plan. The sites which had been chosen for potential housing were also there to see. Attendance at the events was very good, and there were many robust comments, some of them even complimentary!

In mid-March the Steering Group reviewed progress on the Draft Plan, and it was due to be completely finished by the end of that month. Our consultants, YourLocale, will put the finishing, professional touches to it for presentation to the Parish Council. If they approve it, it can proceed to Regulation 14 consultation. This is the formal public consultation lasting six weeks when all residents, stakeholders, landowners, bodies such as Environment Agency, Natural England, Historic England, Woodland Trust, Severn Trent Water – anyone affected by the NDP can inspect it and make any comments they feel are appropriate.

It will be advertised in the local press, go online on the Parish Council website for all to examine, and Coronavirus permitting, will be available to view in the churches, pubs and any available public venue.

The three Theme Groups, Housing and the Built Environment, Natural and Historic Environment and Community Resources and Sustainability, are working hard to the deadline of the end of this month to complete the first draft of the Neighbourhood Plan. Then we hope to present it to all of you for your comments at three sessions, one in each of the villages in February. Watch out for those dates!

The three Theme Groups, Housing and the Built Environment, Natural and Historic Environment and Community Resources and Sustainability, have been working hard to complete their chapters for the first Draft of the Plan. We are hoping to have this done by the end of January, then we shall present it to all of you for your comments at three sessions, one in each of the villages in February. So watch this space!!

I should like to thank all our volunteers for the extremely hard work they are doing to help produce the Neighbourhood Plan. At the end of September a very useful, "State of Play" meeting was held with Gary Kirk, CEO of our Consultants, YourLocale. Members of all three Theme Groups were present and were able to ask plenty of questions about the work they were doing and the Plan itself. At the beginning of October a timetable was agreed with the Borough Council for production of the plan, through the mandatory Regulation 14 Consultation which the Parish Council carries out. Everyone who lives, works and does business in the Parish will be able to comment on it as will public bodies such as Natural England, Historic England and the Environment Agency. So we have a lot to do and are very busy!

The Theme Groups have been collating their research and evidence to write the first draft of the Plan. The Environment Group were given an excellent presentation by ecologist Dave Nicholls who has carried out an ecological and wildlife survey of the Parish. We have some of the best hedgerows in Leicestershire apparently! His findings will help inform how we preserve and conserve the landscape and the views we value so much. The Housing Group is carrying out detailed assessments of potential sites put forward by landowners. They have also made a start on a Design Guide, which will ask for best practise in sustainability, use of materials and characteristics of buildings.

The Steering Group wishes to thank all the volunteer Field Walkers who have given up so much of their free time to assess and accurately record the land around our settlements. They have really worked hard over many months.

We held meetings in the three villages at the beginning of July, to explain to everyone where we have got to with our evidence gathering for the Plan. The attendance was very disappointing, but those who were there asked plenty of questions, and they were lively meetings. However, the low attendance seemed to say that you are not concerned to find out where we are and what has happened so far. How many times can I say, this is your Parish, we want your input and thoughts, and you matter?

The Call for Sites has concluded with some interesting land being put forward in each settlement. We have already been told by HBBC that planning for no housing in the Parish is NOT an option. The Council has fallen below its 5 year land supply, which makes us even more vulnerable. Therefore it is better that we plan exactly what we do want, where and what it is. The Housing and Built Environment Group had already concluded that we could build 10 new houses, 50% of which are to be affordable housing. There is a possibility we could go further, build a few more, and thereby future-proof ourselves against huge estates being forced on us. There is now a lot of work to do which includes looking at the environmental impact that this would all have on the Parish. KC

In May and June the three Theme Groups – Housing and the Built Environment, Natural and Historic Environment and Community Resources and Sustainability - have been meeting and gathering evidence which will form the policies which go into the Plan.

There is a lot of very hard work going on, especially from the Environment Group who are surveying all the fields surrounding each settlement. Any volunteers to help would be very welcome! witherleyparishndp@gmail.com

We are holding three hour-long public meetings to update everyone on progress, and anyone can attend any of them. They will be on Tuesday July 2^nd in Witherley Parish Room at 6pm: Wednesday July 3^rd at Ratcliffe Culey Church at 6pm; Thursday July 4^th at Fenny Drayton Church at 6pm. Please try to come to one of them so that you find out the latest news.

The Open Meeting for residents of the Parish to establish the Theme Groups was held in Witherley Parish Room on Monday March 4^th.

These groups are to gather evidence which will go to writing the policies for the Neighbourhood Plan. There was a good turn-out and we were advised by our consultants YourLocale.

Three groups were formed; Housing and the Built Environment; Natural and Historic Environment; Accessibility and transport, Community Facilities, Economic Growth. By the end of the evening, each group had arranged its next meeting and had plenty to think about and prepare for it.

The work will take place over the next few months, and any expertise will be welcome.

Next meeting is March 4th 7.30 p.m. at Witherley Parish Room

First of all, a huge and warm thank you to all of you who took part in our Parish Survey. There were 339 responses, a far higher number than many other similar surveys. This is an excellent result and will go to inform the writing of the Neighbourhood Plan itself this year. You showed you think it is important, so thank you everyone!

The Steering Group discussed the results with Gary Kirk, our YourLocale consultant who carried out the analysis. The responses were well thought out, including those from the under 17s who took part. There were few surprises; lack of public transport, speeding traffic, lack of pavements, need for a shop, new development and what type it should be if we have to take any, lack of leisure facilities, broadband speeds, mobile phone reception, sewerage problems, flooding were all included in the concerns. On the other hand, nearly everyone valued our green open spaces and vistas, and the rural nature of our Parish. You can see the analyses for yourself on the Parish Council website: neighbourhood-development-plan.html

and our Facebook page @WPNDP

Now we need your help. Our next move is to set up three Theme

Groups based on Housing, Environment and Sustainability (which includes facilities, transport and economic growth). Please don't think that only three themes will prove inadequate for all that needs to be covered; each will be dependent on the findings of the other groups to produce the right results. Each group will be led and guided by an experienced, specialist consultant from YourLocale who will keep us on the right track.

Now here is where you can help us. If there is anything you have a particular interest, skill or experience in and would like to join one of the theme groups, please come to a meeting on Monday March 4^th in Witherley Parish Room. We reckon about 3 to 4 months of work by each group should do it. Anyone under 30 will be more than welcome! It is so important that we get this right and we need the breadth of your experience and knowledge. Please join us.

The Chairman also needs some secretarial help urgently. That person would arrange the Steering Group meetings, book the venues, take and produce the Minutes, and keep electronic records of all proceedings. If you are interested please get in touch with Kay Conway, witherleyparishndp@gmail.com or 07711 764664

The NDP Steering Group met on Monday 8^th October to construct the Survey/Questionnaire which will be coming through your doors in a few weeks' time. For those of you who would rather fill it in online there will be a link to SurveyMonkey where you can find it. Please only fill in one of them.

There will also be surveys for your children and teenagers to complete, and we really do want you all to do it. While it would be foolish to promise that every wish of each resident can be fulfilled, we do need to know the general concensus about various topics and how you would like this Parish to look and feel to live in, in the future. From your answers we shall be able to write the actual Plan, which when ratified, becomes a legally binding document, and thereafter, has to be taken in to account by the Local Authority. This is your Parish. Help us keep it as you would want it.

In the meantime, we must crack on with the questions!

The Steering Group met on Monday 3^rd September at Witherley Church.

Our application for a grant for £4,300 from Locality to help us progress and pay for our consultant, has been accepted and will be managed by the Parish Council. All expenditure must be recorded.

Gary Kirk, our consultant, took us through a "Visioning Exercise" which he had produced from the Group's individual findings about the Parish so far, from the Neighbourhood and Stakeholder meetings. This was a very useful exercise as it will help us to devise the Questionnaire which will go out to all households later this Autumn.

The recent publicity about MIRA building a new test track on part of the registered Battlefield Site was discussed; it also falls within the Parish. We shall write to The Battlefield Trust to find out more information about the boundaries of the Battlefield Site and how it could affect us.

Since we were set up last September, General Data Protection Regulations have come in, and we shall check with the Rural Community Council where we stand on the use of people's email addresses.

The next meeting will be on October 8^th and will be devoted to constructing the Questionnaire.

The Steering Group met in July after interviewing three consultants who could help us in formulating the Plan. We decided to appoint Gary Kirk of YourLocal. His company has already worked on 50 NDPs, many in Leicestershire. He will help us apply for grants for the Plan, and keep us on track!

It was noted that HSL Land had offered co-operation with the NDP Steering Group.

We met again in August to introduce Gary Kirk to the Group, and his advice and experience was very worthwhile.

The Chairman had spoken to Wildlife and Habitat expert David Nicholls to see if he could work with us possibly in the new year and he had agreed.

A very constructive meeting had been held in Atterton to discuss the lack of superfast broadband. Representatives from BT Openreach and Superfast Leicestershire attended, as did Kevin Morrell, Borough Councillor, and Ivan Old, County Councillor. It became clear that because there are so few residents in Atterton, connecting the box which was installed some time ago, to the Witherley box, a distance of 2.4 km, would cost £140,000, making Atterton the most expensive place to connect in Leicestershire! By the end of the afternoon, several ways of accommodating this cost, and also different ways in which the hamlet could be connected had been discussed and were taken away.

NEWSFLASH! Since the last NDP meeting, Superfast Leicestershire has confirmed that a new route to connect Atterton to superfast broadband has been agreed with Openreach and, all being well, they'll be ready to go by the end of the year. RESULT!

The next meeting will be held on Monday September 3^rd at 7.30 in Witherley Church.

The Steering Group met on June 11^th. All eight members were present with Jhanvi Shukla from the Rural Communities Council. A report was given on the Neighbourhood Planning Networking Event held at County Hall on the 22nd May, at which a presentation had been given by the Centre for Sustainable Energy in relation to housing building, improving biodiversity and protecting public spaces. The conclusion was that because of increasing legislation for improved sustainability, any neighbourhood plan which did not include ideas for renewable energy would be out of date very quickly.

It was agreed that a Wildife and Habitat survey needed to be carried out, and we gave approval to the appointment of a habitat surveyor. The best time to do this is in the Spring, so this might have to be carried over to next year.

It had been agreed that, like other NDP groups, we shall need a consultant's help, and interviews with three different companies have been arranged to take place before the end of June. There was much discussion about what questions needed to be asked and it was agreed that an interview grid with scoring would be produced.

The next meeting will be held on Monday July 2^nd at 7.30, venue to be announced.

The Witherley Parish NDP held a meeting on Monday 14^th May in Witherley church.

Helen Bullivant and Dave Wilkins had been to the consultation event held at MIRA on April 24^th. MIRA was announcing the building of the largest development and testing track in Europe for autonomous cars. 50% of the track comes within the Parish boundary and abuts the Fenn Lane. The Construction traffic will go through the entrance from there, not the A5. They have been thorough in their searches including the environmental one on the land they will use. All earth excavated will stay on site to build bunds for noise restriction and security. It goes for Planning Approval in August; they aim to have the track finished by December 2019. Full details are available on the Borough Council's website.

Wildlife Survey: Leicestershire and Rutland Record Centre carried out a survey in 2012, but Witherley Parish was not well covered. We shall try to work with the Borough Council to access surveys they must have done for their new Local Plan.

We shall ask the three Planning Consultants already identified to help us write our plan, to present to us within the next six weeks so that an appointment can be made.

There is a website called NatureSpot Recording the Wildlife of Leicestershire and Rutland, www.naturespot.org.uk which allows anyone to record sightings of animals, birds, rare flowers, fungi and plants. The information is collated by the aforementioned Record Centre and adds to the wildlife knowledge of where you live. It is also very easy to use. It was suggested that we could approach the school and all children in the area to get involved. This would develop their knowledge and appreciation of where they live, but also everyone can contribute to the website if they are interested.

Our next meeting will be on Monday June 11^th.

The Witherley Parish NDP Steering Group held a meeting on Wednesday 11^th April in Fenny Drayton Church.

John Preston and Jhanvi Shukla from the Rural Community Council conducted a workshop on the results from the Neighbourhood Drop-In Events and the Stakeholders' Meeting. It was a matter of concern that we need to engage the younger residents of the Parish from the Teens to 35 age group to come forward, and how we could do this. Talking to the Parish students in their schools was suggested and creating a special questionnaire for that age group, and also younger children.

The three most prominent issues to come out of those meetings were Housing, Transport and Heritage. We were given a planning document to help prioritise these and the other issues, Environment and Open Spaces, Facilities and Services, Renewable Energy, Employment and Business, Communication especially Broadband, Flooding, and Tourism and Recreation. Each member took an area each to begin researching to decide between what could be policy and what community action. This research will feed into the survey/questionnaire which will go to every household in the Parish. We hope to enlist volunteers to help with facts, figures and knowledge to be able to complete these very useful documents.

We are also exploring whether a specialist Wildlife and Botanical Survey would be of use to the final Neighbourhood Plan. We have plenty of work to do!

The next meeting will be held on Monday 14^th May, venue to be confirmed.

A meeting of the Witherley Parish Neighbourhood Development Plan Steering Group was held on 7^th February in Witherley Church. A report on the findings of November's three Drop-in Events was circulated by Jhanvi Shukla of the Rural Communities Council. 114 people from the three villages and Atterton had attended and had given their comments.

The top issue was Transport with 85 respondents whose comments included public transport, speeding, rat runs and the A5. Housing came next with 84 comments and a long list of issues, notably starter/affordable homes, infrastructure, houses for the elderly, keeping the character of the villages etc. No. 3 was Facilities and Services; 4 was Renewable Energy, 5 was History and Heritage, 6 Employment and Business, 7 Open Green Spaces, 8 Environment, 9 Communications, 10 Footpaths and Bridleways and 11 Flooding.

Next on the agenda was the Stakeholder event for invited guests, to be held on Tuesday February 27^th in Witherley Parish Room. The invitations to this meeting have been sent out by the Rural Communities Council. If you have been invited, but have not yet replied, please do so as soon as possible to jshukla@ruralcc.org.uk . We need to know who is attending.

The results from the Stakeholder meeting and the Drop-in Events will inform a Survey of everyone in the Parish to follow on from this.

The Witherley Parish NDP Steering Group held their first meeting of the new year on Tuesday 9^th January in Ratcliffe Culey Church.

The response to the Drop-in sessions was very good generally, particularly from Ratcliffe. There have been no results from those meetings yet from the Rural Community Council, which is compiling a report on the findings, but this will be pursued. Christmas has a lot to answer for!

The main focus of the meeting was to build as comprehensive a list of businesses and organisations in the Parish as possible which will be invited to the Stakeholders' Meeting in Witherley Parish Room on Tuesday 27^th February. Invitations will go out shortly either by email or hand delivered. We do need to know whether you are coming, to book your place. If you do not receive one and you think you should be included please let us know on witherleyparishndp@gmail.com

The date of our next meeting will be announced on our Facebook page and website.

The Witherley Parish Neighbourhood Development Plan Steering Group is hosting Community Consultation Events on:

Friday 17th November, 3 pm - 7 pm at Witherley in the Football Club,

Thursday 23rd November 3 pm - 7 pm at Ratcliffe Culey in All Saints Church,

Saturday 25th November 10 am - 1 pm at Fenny Drayton, St Michael & All Angels' Church.

You are welcome at any of these events, regardless of where in the Parish you live.

This is your chance to help plan the future of where you live.

The Witherley Parish Neighbourhood Development Plan (WPNDP) has begun. The Steering Group has been formed and is starting to chart the course for the future shape of the Parish.

The Plan will include, for example, policies on where and what type of development should happen in your neighbourhood, and its design; the type of housing, transport and access (including issues around roads, cycling, walking and access for disabled people); provision for businesses to set up or expand their premises; the protection and creation of open space; the development of leisure facilities and the protection of important buildings and historic assets.

The founding members of the Steering Group are:

Kay Conway (Witherley); David Wilkins (Ratcliffe Culey); Charlotte Ward-Lewis (Witherley); Derek Ridgway (Fenny Drayton); Cindy McDonnell (Witherley); Helen Bullivant (Ratcliffe Culey); Mark Simpson (Fenny Drayton); Laura Dyer (Ratcliffe Culey); Brian Conway (Witherley).

Roles and responsibilities are being finalised but already the members have elected Kay Conway as Chairman. However, we still need more help. We especially need some younger recruits to the Steering Group, as it's their future that's at stake too.

Contact Kay Conway on 01827 711 073 to find out what's involved.

THIS IS YOUR CHANCE TO HELP SHAPE THE FUTURE OF WITHERLEY PARISH BY TELLING US WHAT YOU WANT FOR YOUR COMMUNITY. YOUR VIEWS MATTER!

Drop-in sessions are planned for

Witherley on Saturday 17^th November;

Fenny Drayton on Thursday 23^rd November and

Ratcliffe Culey on Saturday 25th November.

Times and venues to be confirmed but will be widely advertised, so please save the dates.

More updates too on the facebook page www.facebook.com/WPNDP