The Neighbourhood Development Plan (NDP) for Ross-on-Wye is facing more delays as the Town Council has been asked to decide whether to continue with an approach based on site allocation or a criteria-based approach.

The Ross-on-Wye NDP steering group’s latest report to the Town Council was discussed on Monday, January 8th. Mr Reynolds, the chair of the group, which is made up of a team of local volunteers and supported by the Town Council, said that information had been very slow to come from Herefordshire Council. He asked the Town Councillors to decide whether they should keep on with the allocated site approach, which would take longer and possibly incur more costs, or adopt a criteria based approach.

NDPs aims to give communities more power to shape the development and growth of their local area. They are able to choose where they want new homes, shops and offices to be built and have a say on what those new buildings should look like. Neighbourhood planning helps local people get the right types of development for their community aligning their desires with the needs and priorities of the wider local area.

NDPs can either be criteria based, site based or a mixture. When sites are allocated for development this is almost like having outline planning permission for a site, it covers the number of houses which could be built on that specific area and is counted by the government as part of the five year housing supply.

A criteria based only plan will not have the same weight as a site allocation plan and developers would be able to apply for planning permission on random spaces.

In the report Mr Reynolds said: “Unfortunately, however, we have not had useful responses from Herefordshire Council to a number of our questions – meaning that there are too many unresolved issues for us to place proposals before the populace with any confidence. The costs to the Town Council of getting the information that should be forthcoming are probably not justifiable. Given that the gestation period of the plan is now getting unsustainable and the anticipated CIL returns to the Town Council remain uncertain, the NDP sub-committee have had to consider an alternative to site allocation to take the plan forward.”

Councillor Jane Roberts said: “When this process first started we were strongly encouraged by Herefordshire Council to embark on Neighbourhood Planning. But I am concerned about the likelihood of getting all the information we need.”

The Mayor, Councillor Nigel Gibbs said that there seems to be two views at Herefordshire Council, those held by the eduction department and those held by planning which is causing a delay.See the full story in this week’s edition of the Ross Gazette, or subscribe to our online edition here