Hinckley & Bosworth Borough Council
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Burbage Neighbourhood Development Plan

About the plan

Making of the plan

Following an independent examination and a positive referendum result (referendum held 6 May 2021), the Borough Council have decided to formally 'make' the Burbage Neighbourhood Plan. This neighbourhood plan now forms part of the development plan for Hinckley and Bosworth and the policies in the plan will be given full weight when assessing planning applications in the neighbourhood area.

Referendum

The Borough Council has published the Decision Statement (Regulation 18) and therefore the Burbage Neighbourhood Plan can now proceed to referendum. In response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the government issued an update to Neighbourhood Planning National Planning Practice Guidance which had implications for the referendum process. In relation to referendums, all neighbourhood planning referendums were postponed in line with the Local Government and Police and Crime Commissioner (Coronavirus) (Postponement of Elections and Referendums) (England and Wales) Regulations 2020 (GOV.UK) until 6 May 2021.

It has now been confirmed that Burbage Neighbourhood Plan will be subject to a referendum on 6 May 2021, and as such the specified documents for that referendum can be found below.

Specified documents for the referendum

Please note, Figure 21 of the Burbage Neighbourhood Plan illustrates the locations of local wildlife sites in the neighbourhood area. The designation of local wildlife sites is the responsibility of Leicestershire County Council and are subject to change. To identify whether a site is covered by a local wildlife site please contact Leicestershire County Council Ecology Team (leicestershire.gov.uk)

In regard to decision-making, where the local planning authority has issued a decision statement (as set out under Regulation 25 of the Neighbourhood Planning (General) Regulations 2012) detailing its intention to send a neighbourhood plan to referendum, that plan can be given significant weight in decision-making, so far as the plan is material to the application.

Decision Statement (Regulation 18)

As required by the neighbourhood planning regulations a decision statement (Regulation 18) has been published which outlines what action the Borough Council will take in response to the recommendations made by the Independent Examiner:

Examiner’s report

The examination of the Burbage Neighbourhood Plan was undertaken by Mr John Slater and concluded in April 2020. The Examiner's report is available to view now:

Burbage examination and hearing

Following the publicity and consultation stage, all comments have been forwarded to the Neighbourhood Plan Examiner appointed by us, the local planning authority, and Burbage Parish Council.

The Examiner has considered the contents of the plan and the representations received and decided that a hearing was required to assist the examination of the Neighbourhood Plan. The hearing took place on Tuesday 3 March 2020, commencing at 10am at the Hinckley Hub. The hearing was open to the public to attend, however, oral representations could only be made by those directly invited by the examiner. Further details of the hearing can be found in the following document:

Responses to the hearing questions for Tuesday 3 March 2020

Burbage's response to the Examiner prior to the public hearing

Examiner's initial comments and questions

The Independent Examiner appointed by the Borough Council in partnership with the Parish Council, Mr John Slater, has submitted some initial questions on the Burbage Neighbourhood Plan. These questions and responses from both the Borough Council and the Parish Council can be found below:

Responses to the Regulation 16 Submission Consultation

Our comments

We have submitted comprehensive comments to the examination: 

Comments from members of the public:

Comments from organisations:

As the representation documents above have been submitted to the local planning authority by external parties, we are not responsible for the content. Therefore if you encounter any problems with the documents, for example, web links that do not work, please get in touch with the Planning Policy Team.

Summary of all comments

You can download a summary containing all comments: 

Privacy notice: All comments will be made available, and identifiable by name and organisation (where applicable) to the appointed examiner, local planning authority, and Burbage Parish Council. Please note that any personal information will be processed by the council in line with the Article 6(1) (e) of the General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018.

What happens next?

If the Independent Examiner has any interim questions during the course of the examination, these will be published here, alongside responses from the Neighbourhood Plan Group and us, Hinckley & Bosworth Borough Council.

If the examination results in a positive response either to proceed to referendum with or without modifications, the council will seek to proceed to the public referendum stage as soon as is reasonably practical.

Submission consultation: how you were able to get involved

The final version of the Burbage Neighbourhood Development Plan (NDP), prepared on behalf of Burbage Parish Council, was submitted to the council and was the subject of a six week consultation. Letters and emails were issued to all those consulted in the previous stages of the process.

The consultation ran between Monday 16 September 2019 and 5pm on Monday 28 October 2019. Please note this consultation is now closed. Any comments received after 28 October 2019 will not be considered. 

You can still view the NDP and supporting documents below or by visiting the plan (plan4burbage.co.uk)

Additionally, hard copies can be viewed at the Hinckley Hub, and Burbage Library.

We asked for your comments by completing our Regulation 16 response form (DOCX) which was also available in an alternative format Regulation 16 response form (PDF) 

If you require any of the documents in another format, please get in touch with the Planning Policy team.

Submission of Burbage Neighbourhood Plan

You can download the Burbage Neighbourhood Plan Submission document, and all supporting documents, below:

High-quality versions of the figures/maps in the Neighbourhood Plan, particularly the Environmental maps, are available on Plan 4 Burbage (plan4burbage.co.uk). If you would like them sending via email, please get in touch with either Burbage Neighbourhood Plan group, or Planning Policy at Hinckley & Bosworth Borough Council.

Strategic environmental assessment screening determination

The purpose of a screening statement is to set out a screening opinion in relation to whether a strategic environmental assessment (SEA) process is required to accompany the development of a neighbourhood plan. The screening statement is to be provided to the statutory consultation bodies for SEA for their opinion. The Borough Council has issued a SEA screening opinion report and determination in relation to the draft Burbage Neighbourhood Plan. The screening determination is that a strategic environmental assessment and habitat regulations assessment of the Burbage Neighbourhood Plan is not required due to there being no adverse comments from the statutory consultation bodies and for the reasons set out in the Burbage strategic environmental assessment screening statement:

A hard copy of the document can be viewed at the Hinckley Hub. The accompanying full screening opinion will be published here shortly, alongside the Environmental Report.

Designation and initial consultation

In November 2013, Burbage Parish Council submitted an application to develop a neighbourhood plan which will cover the area of the Burbage parish boundary. A six week consultation on whether this was an appropriate area to undertake a neighbourhood development plan ended on 24 January 2014. Following this consultation, the Borough Council formally designated the Burbage Neighbourhood Area.

Following years of evidence gathering and preparing the plan, the pre-submission version of the Burbage Neighbourhood Plan went out for consultation for six weeks and concluded on Monday 20 November 2017. 

Last updated: ‎18‎/‎05‎/‎2021‎ ‎10‎:‎04‎