West Bletchley Neighbourhood Plan - Previous Stages

February 2019

At the referendum on the Neighbourhood Plan that took place on 14 February 2019, 2032 of the votes cast were in favour of the Neighbourhood Plan being made part of the Development Plan for Milton Keynes and 343 were against. The turnout was 13.35%. The Declaration of Results can be seen at the following link:  Declaration Result (PDF, 13KB) 

Following the successful referendum, the West Bletchley Neighbourhood Plan is now in force as part of the statutory development plan for the area covered by West Bletchley parish and will be used when making decisions on planning applications in this area.  The Plan will be formally made at full council on 20 March 2019.

 

Referendum Information

14 February 2019

A referendum relating to the adoption of the West Bletchley neighbourhood plan was held on Thursday 14 February 2019

The question asked in the referendum was:

 'Do you want Milton Keynes Council to use the Neighbourhood Plan for West Bletchley to help it decide planning applications in the neighbourhood area?'

The Referendum area is identified on the map within the Information Statement which is available below. This is the same as the designated neighbourhood plan area for West Bletchley.

Residential Referendum

A person was entitled to vote in the Residential Referendum if, on 14 February 2019:

  • he or she is entitled to vote in a local government election in the referendum area and
  • his or her qualifying address for the election is in the Referendum area. A person’s qualifying address is, in relation to a person registered in the register of electors, the address in respect of which he or she is entitled to be so registered. 

Referendum expenses

The referendum expenses limit that will apply to this Referendum is £3,389.95

The referendum was conducted in accordance with procedures which are similar to those used at local government elections.

Specified documents

A number of "specified documents" have to be published for the referendum. These provide information about the West Bletchley Neighbourhood Plan and the planning system in general.

The specified documents can be viewed here:

A copy of the specified documents, that is those documents listed below, may be inspected during office hours at:

Questions?

If you have any questions, you can:

• Call 01908 691691 between Monday to Friday (10:00 – 17:15)

• email us at neighbourhoodplanning@milton-keynes.gov.uk 

• visit the Planning Policy pages of the website  

• For general information about neighbourhood planning see the following Government website.

December 2018

Decision statement following receipt of Examiner's report

Following the receipt of the Examiner's report on the West Bletchley Neighbourhood Plan, Milton Keynes Council has considered and accepted all of the Examiner's recommendations and the Neighbourhood Plan will now proceed to a referendum on 14 February 2019.

July 2018

Milton Keynes Council appointed John Parmiter in July 2018 to review the proposed submission of the West Bletchley Neighbourhood Plan. John has 40 years’ of experience working in planning and development industry. The examiner’s main role is to ensure that the neighbourhood plan meets the basic conditions and is able to proceed to referendum.

The examination process will be conducted through written representations and an independent site visit. In advance of the examiner's report, he has asked MKC to clarify the following policy areas:

  • What is the up-to-date position on housing need?
  • What do you consider to be the strategic policies of the development plan;
  • Is the BNH2 site an allocation that was removed from the Site Allocations Plan (I refer to your housing policy officer reps)? If so, can you please explain why (say by sending me an extract from the Inspector’s report)?
  • Does the SEA take into account the recent court case about mitigation; and why does the Screening Report (App 4) omit the consultation advice?

The Council's response can be found at the following link; Council's Response (PDF, 772KB) and the examiner’s report will be published here once it has been received.

May 2018

The Parish Council submitted the West Bletchley Neighbourhood Plan to Milton Keynes Council in February 2018.

In accordance with Regulation 16 of the Neighbourhood Planning (General) Regulations 2012, Milton Keynes Council is now publicising the submitted Neighbourhood Plan and its accompanying documents for six weeks from Monday 7 May 2018 to 5pm on Tuesday 19 June 2018.

The Consultation Summary (PDF, 398KB) provides more information about the plan and the consultation arrangements.

Submitted documents

West Bletchley Character Appraisal:

Following the publicity period, an independent examiner will be appointed to consider the neighbourhood plan and any comments received during the consultation.  The examiner will decide if the plan and its policies meet the basic conditions that all neighbourhood plans must comply with and whether the plan should proceed to a local referendum.

Making comments

Any comments on the submitted West Bletchley Neighbourhood Plan must be received by the Development Plans Team at the following address before 5pm on Tuesday 19 June 2018:

By post to:  Neighbourhood Planning, c/o Development Plans Team, Milton Keynes Council, Civic Offices, 1 Saxon Gate East, Milton Keynes, MK9 3EJ.

By email to: neighbourhoodplanning@milton-keynes.gov.uk

Please be aware that all comments that we receive will be publicly available and may be included on our website.

A hard copy of the documents are also available to inspect at the following locations:

Neighbourhood Area Designation, 10 December 2013

Following consideration of the application by West Bletchley Council to designate a neighbourhood area covering the parish area, Milton Keynes Council agreed the designation on 10 December 2013.