MINUTES OF A MEETING OF THE CRANBROOK & SISSINGHURST NEIGHBOURHOOD DEVELOPMENT PLAN STEERING GROUP HELD ON 26TH APRIL 2021
PRESENT: Cllr. Warne (in the Chair), Cllr. Pethurst, Cllr. Hatcher and Marion Cranmer, Liz Daley, June Bell, Jeremy Boxall and Matt Warne.
APOLOGIES: Anne Hopper
Cllr. Warne read out the following statement:
Members are required to declare any interests, dispensations, predetermination on items on this agenda in accordance with the Council’s Code of Conduct. Members are reminded that changes to the Register of Interests should be notified to the Clerk.
June Bell and Liz Daley declared an interest as members of Hartley Save Our Fields Action Group. Members of the various Advisory Groups declared an interest as necessary.
1. Response to TWBC Local Plan Consultation:
Cllr. Warne informed members that TWBC is carrying out a public consultation on its Pre-Submission Local Plan which ends at 5pm on Friday 4th June 2021. Cllrs. Hatcher, Pethurst and Matt Warne agreed to assist and a meeting would be arranged by Cllr. Warne. The proposed response would be submitted to the next NDP meeting for agreement. It was also agreed to email all members to invite them to attend if they so wish and also forward comments they would like included if they were not able to attend the meeting.
2. Timeline:
Cllr. Warne had been contacted by Deborah Dixon asking for an update of the timeline regarding submission of the NDP plan to TWBC. Cllr. Pethurst commented that if the Consultation Statement was needed as part of the Reg. 16, there was still quite a lot of work to be undertaken. It was noted that once all the comments and responses had been collated and amendments made to the Chapters these would then be sent to Richard Eastham. Cllr. Warne reported that no response had been received from Richard Eastham on how to respond to objections from site promotors etc. Cllr. Warne agreed to chase him up on this matter.
Discussion then took place regarding email responses and June Bell reminded members that a word document had been created and circulated for individual chapter groups to make responses. The link to the one drive is:
The consultation statement should contain the following details of the Regulation 14 consultation:
• details of people and organisations consulted about the proposed neighbourhood plan
• details of how they were consulted
• a summary of the main issues and concerns raised through the consultation process
• descriptions of how these issues and concerns were considered and addressed in the
proposed neighbourhood plan
After lengthy discussion it was agreed that the group should aim to produce something satisfactory by the end of July.
3. Stakeholder Engagement:
Cllr. Warne reported on a meeting recently held with Shotcrete representatives regarding their vision on what they would like to do on the site. They were hoping to make half the site available for additional employment with light industrial units and keep half for themselves expanding shotcrete. It was a very positive meeting and the next step for them is to contact the TWBC Planning Authority.
4. Items for Information:
The next meeting of the NDP would take place on 17th May 2021 at 7pm.
5. Design Group:
Cllr. Warne had forwarded everyone a copy of the NDP Design Checklist produced by Pip Gill, which is based on the High Weald AONB Design Guide. It was felt that some edits may be necessary to better articulate that the document would represent the whole of the Parish Area.
Cllr Warne also reported that Cllr Bunyan had submitted a document which focused on sustainable building practices, which will need to be incorporated into the final checklist document.
Further, Elaine Capon had produced some detailed information on Listed Buildings in the parish and had started taking a directory of images to illustrate the design checklist.
The Steering Group expressed their gratitude to the Design sub-group for undertaking these tasks.
If members of the NDP wished to make any changes or recommendations to this document please email Cllr. Warne as soon as possible.
6. NDP Consultation Responses:
The Chairman stated that the meeting no longer required the Clerk.
The meeting continued without the Clerk to go through the Design Checklist and agree consultation responses regarding the Community & Culture Chapter.
