Berinsfield Parish Council applied to designate the area within the Parish Boundary as the Berinsfield Neighbourhood Area and this was approved by the Head of Planning at South Oxfordshire District Council on 25th October, 2013. This means that work can now start on preparing the Berinsfield Neighbourhood Development Plan.
Neighbourhood Development Planning starts for Berinsfield
The Localism Act 2011 introduced statutory Neighbourhood Planning in England. It enables communities like Berinsfield to draw up a Neighbourhood Plan for their area and is intended to give communities more of a say in the future development of their local area. These plans will be used to decide the future of the places where you live and work giving opportunities to:
- Choose where you want new homes, shops, offices and leisure facilities to be built
- Have your say on what new buildings should look like
- Grant planning permission for the new buildings you want to see go ahead
South Oxfordshire District Council has now approved the boundary of the Berinsfield NDP area which runs to the full extent of the Parish Boundary, not just the edge of the settlement (see the plan above).
This is an exciting time for Berinsfield as localism is all about empowering local residents, employers and other stakeholders to decide themselves where new homes and employment should go.
Berinsfield like so many other areas will need to find space(s) for new homes, shops and offices. The latest figures provided by SODC are that at least 109 new homes will need to be built in or around Berinsfield over the next 13 years (the life of the SODC Core Strategy).