At the Parish Council meeting on January 19th, Chairman Bob Nelson announced the outcome of the poll undertaken among 127 Broadhembury Village residents in December.
With a 59% response rate, 61% of residents voted against, and 36% for, the proposed development opposite the Village Hall – a very convincing majority. Accepting the result, the Chairman commented that “It is clear the Parish Council has not persuaded the village over this matter.” The biggest concern indicated by ‘no’ voters was that the level of non-affordable housing required to deliver the affordable housing was “disproportionate”.
The Parish Council will now begin investigations into other options to meet their affordable homes objective, including proposals from The Broadhembury Estate and Grange resident, Ben Andersen. They will then commence work on a revised draft Neighbourhood Plan with new development proposals.
There is now no requirement for residents to return comments on the existing draft Neighbourhood Plan, if they have not already done so. However it is worth retaining comments on the other (non-development) elements of the plan as they will still be of value for the new draft.
The Broadhembury Village Matters team is naturally delighted with the level of support for the village heritage and environment that has been demonstrated through this vote. We cannot at this stage say “job done” because we want to engage constructively with the wider aspects of the next draft Neighbourhood Plan while giving due scrutiny to any new development proposals it may contain.
Broadhembury Village Matters 