To receive a verbal update on the three local Neighbourhood Plans.

John Bastow of the Windsor Neighbourhood Plan explained that the plan covered the major part of residential Windsor excluding the gardens, town centre, riverside and the area of West Windsor in Bray parish. The 6 week pre-submission consultation had taken place in September 2016.  Comments had been reviewed in early 2017 and the plan refined as necessary. National legislation required the plan to conform with generic Borough local Plan (BLP) policies. It had been difficult to plan in the absence of the BLP and therefore the neighbourhood plan had been longer than as necessary. Therefore the group would welcome the publication of the BLP.

Locality, the administrative arm of the DCG, had health checked the plan and raised a number of issues. The group had applied for additional funding from two pots:

i)             A free of charge facilitation package for technical advice; this had been agreed in the last few days

ii)            A cash grant to fund further work if necessary. The decision had been deferred for one month.

The main issue was now the need to reduce the number of policies and update some including Open Space. This illustrated the problem with the absence of a BLP. If a Strategic Environmental Assessment was needed this would be followed through with the help of the facilitation package. Technical issues such as a sustainability assessment and the need to consider each policy against the National Planning Policy Framework needed to be addressed. Production of the final draft was expected in February 2018, which would then be submitted to the borough, or a second public consultation would be run if sufficient changes were required.

Roz Rivas of the Eton and Eton Wick Neighbourhood Plan explained that the group had been split into four teams, which all reported into the Steering Group. The group had worked closely with the borough officers in all areas. The only remaining issue was transport. 300 people had contributed to the six week consultation. One issue had been de-emphasised as a result, to become a small project rather than a core one.  Regulation 15 documents had been submitted on 13 June 2017. In parallel, contributions had been made to the Conservation Area Action Appraisal document. The Regulation 16 consultation had been planned to avoid the summer break as many people had a relationship with Eton College and were therefore not around over the summer.

There was one issue in relation to the BLP, although this was not felt to be a reason not to submit. There were three designations of places in the BLP: town centre, district centre and local centre. A local centre was designated as when a number of premises no longer had businesses, they could convert to residential properties. It was imperative for both Windsor and  Eton not to have this allowance. The objection was included in the first round of the consultation. The group had been horrified when it had come back remaining as a local centre. Eton Wick was a local centre, however Eton was a different case and was effectively a town centre. It had therefore been requested that Windsor and Eton be considered as one town centre for the purposes of the BLP. A future meeting was planned to consider the enhanced designation of retail outlets in the area.

Sally Stevens of the Windsor 2030 group explained that the plan was business focussed but did include some residents. It was hoped that the draft plan would go back to the professional writers at the end of the week. A design guide was being drawn up. A legal review had been undertaken to tighten up the policies to be more robust and resilient. The group had resolved to ask the council for scoping opinions in relation to the Environmental Impact Assessment.  It was hoped a professional assessment would not be needed.

The revised plan would be published in January or February 2018, with consultation in March or April. A referendum was therefore possible by the end of 2018. The timetable would be impacted if an Environmental Impact Assessment was required. Meetings for specialist interest groups had been held, for example St Leonards Road traders and companies on the Vansittart Road Industrial Estate. It was confirmed that Heathrow was not covered by the plan.

The Chairman thanked the three representatives for their presentations and for the work of all the volunteers involved.