Following the Parish Council’s email to CDC on 20 January 2025, there have been a number of exchanges leading to an agreed date (8 May 2025) for the first CDC Policy EN18 Community Consultation Group.
As mentioned below, the upcoming Elections play their part in date setting, and it’s fair to say that significant changes within local government are also playing their part in the capacity of CDC to juggle many things at the same time.
More detail to follow regarding the agenda and attendee list.
In the meantime, thanks to CDC for progressing things.
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From: Matthew Britton <matthew.britton@cotswold.gov.uk>
Sent: 04 March 2025 16:42
To: ‘stephen@sherborneparish.org’ <stephen@sherborneparish.org>
Subject: RE: Cotswold District Council Local Plan Policy EN18 Feedback
Hi Stephen,
Many thanks for your email.
Yes, it’s fine for Working Group to include representation from Sherborne’s neighbouring parishes.
The National Trust would be included as a Working Group member. They would be invited to participate in Working Group meetings. Ultimately, we would want every Working Group member to work positively and constructively in helping to make Policy EN18 as good as it can be ahead of the Local Plan being submitted for its examination in public.
Would 11am on Thursday 8th May be a suitable time?
Best wishes,
Matt
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From: stephen@sherborneparish.org <stephen@sherborneparish.org>
Sent: 04 March 2025 13:03
To: Matthew Britton <matthew.britton@cotswold.gov.uk>
Subject: Re: Cotswold District Council Local Plan Policy EN18 Feedback
Hello Matt and thank you for your reply.
Let’s go for the 8th. In terms of invitees, we discussed that the CDC EN18 consultative group would include representation from Sherborne’s neighbouring Parishes. Is this still your intention?
Also, how do you see the National Trust’s role in this group. To date, the Trust has displayed little willingness to engage with the community in any meaningful way.
If you could confirm the make-up of the group, and high-level terms, we can secure diary slots etc.
Looking forward to seeing you soon.
Best wishes
Stephen
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From: Matthew Britton <matthew.britton@cotswold.gov.uk>
Sent: Monday, February 17, 2025 10:02 AM
To: ‘stephen@sherborneparish.org’ <stephen@sherborneparish.org>
Cc: yvonne@sherborneparish.org <yvonne@sherborneparish.org>; ‘Tom Whiffen’ <tom@sherborneparish.org>; ‘Edward Richardson’ <ed@sherborneparish.org>; hannah@sherborneparish.org <hannah@sherborneparish.org>; hannah@sherborneparish.org <hannah@sherborneparish.org>; Local Plan (CDC) <Local.Plan@cotswold.gov.uk>; Juliet Layton <Juliet.Layton@cotswold.gov.uk>
Subject: RE: Cotswold District Council Local Plan Policy EN18 Feedback
Dear Stephen
Many thanks for your email and apologies for the delay in responding. I have copied your email below and provided responses in turn in a different colour font.
We have been reviewing CDC’s consultation summary document (attached for reference).
Although the seven plus five paragraphs capture the issues, we would be grateful if the document would explicitly reference the comprehensive feedback document we provided, in association with our neighbouring Parishes, and the many more individual Parishioner representations included within the document. We feel the current edition of the CDC’s document (28 plus six individual contributions) underplays the breadth and depth of community feedback received by CDC. We have attached the document for your reference. There are over 40 individual responses in addition to the inputs received from each Parish Council.
We feel it is important for the Local Plan development process to fully represent the scale of interest expressed by the community and would kindly ask that you update your document accordingly.
The Local Plan Consultation Summary Report has now been published. This was designed to be a summary of the main points that were raised. It does not refer to the number of representations that have been made or capture every point. We have published each individual response to the Local Plan consultation alongside the Consultation Summary Report, which provides this function. Unfortunately, the Consultation Summary Report cannot be updated at this stage.
In the meantime, we continue to chase the National Trust regarding Masterplan consultation. This was a key outcome of the public meeting (18 March attended by James) during which the National Trust committed to joining a multi-stakeholder working group to consider the content of a future Masterplan and consult with the community on its content. In turn, this group would feed into the main CDC EN18 working group (another 18 March commitment). Two separate groups to consider different (but related of course) aspects.
In the meantime, are you able to estimate when a first meeting of the CDC EN18 working group might be held?
Having now reviewed all the feedback provided on the draft Local Plan policy, we can now move forward with the first Policy EN18 Working Group meeting. There is a pre-election period between 25th March and 1st May, and we can’t hold the first meeting in this period. We also have key members of the team on annual leave in March. It’s some way off, but would the Parish Council be available in the morning of Thursday 8th May?
Best wishes,
Matt
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From: stephen@sherborneparish.org <stephen@sherborneparish.org>
Sent: 16 February 2025 16:09
To: Local Plan (CDC) <Local.Plan@cotswold.gov.uk>; Juliet Layton <juliet.layton@cotswold.gov.uk>; Matthew Britton <matthew.britton@cotswold.gov.uk>
Cc: yvonne@sherborneparish.org; ‘Tom Whiffen’ <tom@sherborneparish.org>; ‘Edward Richardson’ <ed@sherborneparish.org>; hannah@sherborneparish.org; hannah@sherborneparish.org
Subject: RE: Cotswold District Council Local Plan Policy EN18 Feedback
Hello Matt
We were wondering if you had been able to consider our email. Particularly adding the many items of feedback contained within the consolidated Parish Council EN18 consultation document we submitted last April.
In the meantime, we are very disappointed by the National Trust’s response to our email seeking an update on the Estate Masterplan community consultation group. Their response is attached for your reference. The Trust’s actions continue (seemingly) to contradict the consultative nature of CDC Policy/Plan development which you have underlined throughout the process to date.
Kind regards
Stephen
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From: stephen@sherborneparish.org
Sent: 20 January 2025 13:10
To: Local.Plan@cotswold.gov.uk; juliet.layton@cotswold.gov.uk; matthew.britton@cotswold.gov.uk>
Cc: yvonne@sherborneparish.org; tom@sherborneparish.org; ed@sherborneparish.org; hannah@sherborneparish.org
Subject: RE: Cotswold District Council Local Plan Policy EN18 Feedback
Hello Matt and Happy New Year to you and your team. A busy year ahead I suspect.
We have been reviewing CDC’s consultation summary document (attached for reference).
Although the seven plus five paragraphs capture the issues, we would be grateful if the document would explicitly reference the comprehensive feedback document we provided, in association with our neighbouring Parishes, and the many more individual Parishioner representations included within the document. We feel the current edition of the CDC’s document (28 plus six individual contributions) underplays the breadth and depth of community feedback received by CDC. We have attached the document for your reference. There are over 40 individual responses in addition to the inputs received from each Parish Council.
We feel it is important for the Local Plan development process to fully represent the scale of interest expressed by the community and would kindly ask that you update your document accordingly.
In the meantime, we continue to chase the National Trust regarding Masterplan consultation. This was a key outcome of the public meeting (18 March attended by James) during which the National Trust committed to joining a multi-stakeholder working group to consider the content of a future Masterplan and consult with the community on its content. In turn, this group would feed into the main CDC EN18 working group (another 18 March commitment). Two separate groups to consider different (but related of course) aspects.
In the meantime, are you able to estimate when a first meeting of the CDC EN18 working group might be held?
Kind regards
Stephen Challis