Following the independent examination of the Rottingdean Parish Neighbourhood Plan, councillors have agreed to recommend to a full council meeting that all the Examiner’s recommendations are accepted and that a local referendum is held on whether the plan should be adopted by the council.
Neighbourhood Plans sit alongside other local planning policies, such as City Plan, to guide development and to help decide the outcome of planning applications in the area. This is the second Neighbourhood Plan in the city to have reached this final stage, the other was the Hove Station Area Plan in November 2023.
Rottingdean Parish Council submitted their draft Plan to the council in January 2023. Following a public consultation an Examiner was appointed to assess whether the plan met legal requirements relating to national and local planning policies, and whether it would contribute to the achievement of sustainable development.
At the Culture, Heritage, Sport, Tourism & Economic Development Special Committee Meeting on 8 December a proposal to accept the amendments that the Examiner put forward and to recommend that these are accepted at a full council meeting on 14 December was agreed.
The Committee also agreed to recommend that the amended plan goes to a referendum where all residents in the Rottingdean Parish Neighbourhood Area can vote on whether they think the council should adopt the plan or not.
If more than 50% of those voting support the Neighbourhood Plan in the referendum, the council will formally adopt the Hove Station Neighbourhood Plan at its next meeting. The Neighbourhood Plan Area includes parts of the South Downs National Park and therefore the National Park Authority will also be required to formally ‘make’ the Neighbourhood Plan.
More information about the plan and the Examiner’s recommendations can be found online at Rottingdean Neighbourhood Plan (brighton-hove.gov.uk)
