To consider ‘making’ the Datchet Neighbourhood Plan as part of the Development Plan for the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead, and for it to be used in decision making for relevant planning applications in the Neighbourhood Plan area. This is following the referendum on 4 May 2023, where a significant majority of votes were cast in favour of the Neighbourhood Plan.

Council considered the report regarding the ‘making’ the Datchet Neighbourhood Plan as part of the Development Plan for the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead, and for it to be used in decision making for relevant planning applications in the Neighbourhood Plan area. This was following the referendum on 4 May 2023, where a significant majority of votes were cast in favour of the Neighbourhood Plan.

Having declared an interest Councillor Buckley left the meeting for the duration of the item.

Councillor Bermange proposed the recommendations as set out in the report explaining that when done well Neighbourhood Plans could provide a powerful set of tools for local people to help shape the development and growth of the local area to meet their community’s needs. He stated that Neighbourhood Planning gave communities direct power to develop a shared vision for their area and the resulting document contained an array of Neighbourhood-specific policies in areas such as design, heritage, the green and blue environment and meeting the housing needs of older people.

He reported that he had spent some time in the ward with Councillors Buckley and Larcombe who were also long-servicing members of Datchet Parish Council, who had been instrumental in bringing the document forward and Councillor Grove who shared a real passion for the area. He had met the leading members of the Datchet Village Society, which worked in partnership with the Parish through the Steering Group. The Society’s members had provided a tour and explained the history of a number of Non-Designated Heritage Assets that would be offered additional protection through local listing via the Plan. He reported that on 4 May 2023 87.5% of votes cast in the referendum were in favour of making the Datchet Neighbourhood Plan.

He noted that the original application for designation of Datchet as a Neighbourhood Plan Area was submitted more than a decade ago and that after the Plan was made the next step was for the Council, as local planning authority, to give the policies of the Neighbourhood Plan the proper weight within decision making, as part of the Local Development Plan and ensuring, if and when required, than appropriate enforcement actions were deployed to preserve the integrity of the Plan.

Councillor Larcombe seconded the motion and stated that the Datchet Neighbourhood Plan Steering Group would like to express their thanks to the Royal Borough and its officers, firstly for the opportunity to create a Neighbourhood Plan, and secondly for their assistance and support throughout its development. He commented that after many years in the making, the Plan received overwhelming support at the recent referendum. The Steering Group hoped that the Council would formally adopt the Plan so that residents' views about the development of the village could be taken into account, helping to protect Datchet's unique character and heritage.

Councillor Hunt commented that she had been involved in one of the first steering groups developing a Neighbourhood Plans and understood the amount of time invested by the volunteers to deliver this plan.

Councillor Bermange summed up that there were a number of areas whose plans were still in development and he encourage them to learn lessons from those that had gone through it.

On the proposition of Councillor Bermange, lead member forPlanning, Legal and Asset Management and seconded by Councillor Larcombe it was

RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY that

i)               the report be noted;

ii)             in accepting the result of the referendum, agreed to formally ‘make’ the Datchet Neighbourhood Plan part of the Development Plan for the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead and;

iii)            authority be delegated to the Head of Planning in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Planning, Legal and Asset Management to make minor non material amendments to the Neighbourhood Plan prior to its publication.