What is the Bourne Parish Neighbourhood Plan?
The Draft Vision For Bourne
By 2036 Bourne will be a more attractive, sustainable, vibrant and prosperous market town and Parish with a safe, healthy environment that is more resilient to climate change and where provisions have been made to better cater for the needs of our community, from the very young to the very old; where the positive character of our heritage, landscape and natural environment has been maintained and improved; where there is a thriving economy; where housing meets the needs of the local community; where shopping and services within the town centre are varied; where the visitor experience has been enhanced; and where links from the town to the surrounding countryside have been maintained and improved, particularly for pedestrians and cyclists.
The draft vision provides an over-arching statement of what Bourne should be like in 2036.
A vision should not be long or include lots of detail; it paints a broad picture of what the area will look like, the development needs of the community and what it will be like to live in.
Let’s talk about Bourne Parish. What do you like about it; what do you dislike; and how can we make Bourne a better place to live in and visit in the future?
The Bourne Parish Neighbourhood Plan (‘the BPNP’) provides us, the local community, with an important opportunity to establish a vision of what we want the Parish to be like in 2036 and to develop land use planning policies that will contribute towards achieving the vision and be used to determine planning applications.
The BPNP is concerned with shaping our built environment. It can help to protect things that we care about such as important open spaces and buildings; it can define where buildings can go and what they can be used for; and it can influence what new buildings should look like and be used to support the kind of development that we want to see.
The area to which the BPNP will relate is known as the ‘Neighbourhood Area’ and is shown on the map below. It relates not only to the town of Bourne but to the whole of the Parish including Dyke, Cawthorpe, Twenty and the surrounding countryside.
The Town Council has overall responsibility for preparing the BPNP. It has delegated this task to a Steering Group of members of the Town Council and local community. However, we want to involve the wider community by asking for your views at key times in the process.
The draft objectives link to the vision; they are more specific and set out what needs to be achieved to help make the vision a reality. The rest of this document is organised into 5 key themes: our natural environment and cultural wellbeing; Bourne’s unique identity; developing a prosperous economy; housing our community; and high quality design.
In respect of each theme we have provided a brief summary of the evidence base and key issues. This is followed by the draft objectives for each theme and questions that we would like you to answer.
There can be considerable overlap between the themes. For example, the heritage of Bourne is relevant not only to its unique identity but also to developing a prosperous economy (notably in relation to the town centre and visitor economy) and delivering high quality design.
The Bourne Parish Area Map
Has Anything Already Been Decided?
We do not start with a blank canvas. The BPNP cannot stray too far from Government policies or the strategic policies of the South Kesteven Local Plan (the Local Plan) which provide a framework for determining planning applications across the whole of South Kesteven. The BPNP can support the policies of the Local Plan by including additional policies of a more local nature. So, for example, the BPNP cannot promote less development than indicated in the Local Plan.
In brief, the Local Plan strategy aims to focus growth primarily at Grantham with more limited development at the market towns of Stamford, Bourne, the Deepings and larger villages. The modest level of growth proposed for Bourne follows a significant period of growth in recent years with several hundred new homes still to be built at Elsea Park. Sensitive infill development and the redevelopment of previously developed sites is permitted within smaller villages including Dyke and Twenty. In the open countryside, which includes Cawthorpe, development is restricted to that which is necessary to support the rural economy.
The Draft Objectives
The draft objectives link to the vision; they are more specific and set out what needs to be achieved to help make the vision a reality. There are 5 key themes:
- Our natural environment and cultural wellbeing
- Bourne’s unique identity
- Developing a prosperous economy
- Housing our community
- High-quality design.
There can be considerable overlap between the themes. For example, the heritage of Bourne is relevant not only to its unique identity but also to developing a prosperous economy (notably in relation to the town centre and visitor economy) and delivering high-quality design.
Your Voice
Perhaps you have felt powerless in the past to influence any development in your neighbourhood then this is a real opportunity for you to change that and be directly involved. We urgently need more volunteers to join the Steering Group and help to speed up the process of preparing the BPNP. This is your chance to influence planning decisions and reflect our communities needs and vision.
To find out more, please contact the Town Clerk in the first instance.
Join The Steering Group
We urgently need more volunteers to join the Steering Group and help to speed up the process of preparing the BPNP. To find out more, please contact the Town Clerk in the first instance.
Supported By Bourne Town Council
Contact
Bourne Town Council
SK Community Point
3 Abbey Rd
Bourne
PE10 9EF
info@bourneparishneighbourhoodplan.org.uk