New Neighbourhood Plan for Teignmouth

A little bit of history was made at Teignbridge District Council’s Full Council meeting, when the Council voted to approve Teignmouth’s Neighbourhood Plan.

This will give Teignmouth, for the first time, a louder voice at the Planning Committee since the Plan, having been “made”, will stand alongside the Teignbridge Local Plan when assessing planning applications. Currently the Town Council is only one of numbers of other organisations consulted on local relevant applications but any recommendations that are made are not binding on the District.  This now changes and the content of the Neighbourhood Plan must be considered.   Not only that, the Town Council will now receive an increased share of any Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) payments made by developers – from 15% to 25%.

Councillor Joan Atkins chaired the Town Council’s Neighbourhood Plan Steering Group which was made up of several councillors, community stakeholders and their Planning Consultant, Stuart Todd.  The Group drove the Plan, as a Team (also with the support of Teignbridge Planning Officers) through the maze of repeated consultation required in the process, with the attendant analysis of responses, refining the Plan, and then on to submission for external examination and approval to go out to Referendum.  The Referendum result was a resounding Yes from the people of Teignmouth (nearly 80% of those who voted said Yes) that it should be used to assess planning applications for Teignmouth along with the Local Plan.   Cllr Atkins said, “It is really important to implement the Plan now and use it ourselves as well as encourage the townsfolk and the Teignbridge Planning Committee when looking at planning applications.  There is a detailed Design Code which also provides guidance in many areas.  The best news though is financial, in that, although it can’t apply to the last big development in Teignmouth at Higher Exeter Road, in future the town will receive 25% of the CIL money paid by developers whose schemes are  eligible.  This is, in effect, “free” money to the town as it is not raised by precept and will go to making infrastructure improvements in the town that fall within its remit. On behalf of the members of the Steering Group, my sincere thanks go to everyone for the kind words that have accompanied the approval of the Plan and to the people of Teignmothians themselves for sharing with us their hopes and ideas on how the future of Teignmouth should look.  Now the serious work begins, to implement the Plan and monitor it continually against the ever-changing  Planning Legislation frameworks with which it will need to comply – particularly relevant now that the new Government is talking of sweeping changes in the Planning system.”