What is our Neighbourhood Plan, and why do we need one?
The 2011 Localism Act brought in the right for local communities, through their town and parish councils, to shape their future development by preparing their own Neighbourhood Plans, and shaping how this area is developed in the next 15 years.
It is a community-led process, drawn up by consultation with all groups, organisations and people in the parish. It must reflect the wishes of our residents for future development of the whole parish; not just housing, but also other vital considerations including education, recreation, employment, communications, transport, sustainability and environmental issues for example.
There are formal consultation phases and an independent examination of our Plan to ensure that it is legally watertight and takes account of wider policy considerations (e.g. national policy).Now it has been approved it will be put to a referendum in the community on May 6th; these Neighbourhood Development Plans will only take effect if there is a majority of support.
The various stages that have led to our final Neighbourhood Plan ;
- The land within the parish boundary has been identified and registered as our ‘neighbourhood’ ; our neighbourhood plan area.
- Following several Consultations, two surveys to assess Affordable Housing needs, a new national ruling on the status of the AONB, and a concentrated period of advice from approved planning consultants, our Draft Plan has been updated many times.
- At the latter end of 2019 and January 2020 – more assessments, and advice from our approved planning consultant to ensure that all wording and policies comply with planning law, and are in accord with the overall South Hams District Council Plan (This is contained within the The Plymouth and South West Devon Joint Local Plan and was adopted by South Hams District Council on 21 March 2019.)
- Then came the Pandemic, and Lockdown. The Draft had been lodged with SHDC, but there were inevitable delays in scrutinising the plan, and one or two necessary alterations, but eventually, in July the official independant examiner was able to assess the final Draft, and recommend acceptance!

Latest news – our Neighbourhood Plan is now complete, and is ready for your approval !

The completed Draft was submitted to South Hams District Council’s independant examiner who scrutinised it thoroughly, and finally accepted it at the end of July 2020.
This meant that at the next parish council meeting, councilors could vote unanimously to adopt our Neighbourhood Plan so that the policies it contains now give our parish a say in future planning here until 2034.
Parishioners are invited to vote to accept the Plan on May 6th 2021, with our local elections, but in the meantime, this adopted version still carries full weight when planning decisions are made. Thank you all for all your input – it’s your Plan now!

Aveton Gifford NP Regulation 15 Submission
Supporting information
TERMS OF REFERENCE dtd 17.6.19 282.79 KB 2836 downloads
Terms of Reference, AGNP Steering Group
Sites for consideration 3.48 MB 2811 downloads
Map showing the 12 sites that were initially put forward for assessment
Aveton Gifford NP site assessment_v0.1_140317 4.74 MB 2698 downloads
Aveton Gifford Site Assesment report
Appendix A – Consultation 1 responses 834.37 KB 2325 downloads
Public Consultation 1 – responses
Appendix B – Consultation 2 responses Sites 621.82 KB 2350 downloads
Public Consultation 2 – responses
19.10.03 AGNP Reg14 SHDC comments and NP response 528.47 KB 2264 downloads
AGNP consultation response from SHDC for Regulation 14
19.10.08 AGNP – Responses to Reg 14 Consultation 85.40 KB 2198 downloads
AGNP responses from Statutory Consultees for Regulation 14
19.04.09 AGNP Statement of Consultation v2 1.38 MB 2175 downloads
AGNP Statement of Consultation for Regulation 15
19.10.08 AGNP choice of development sites evidence paper 73.74 KB 2427 downloads
AGNP Evidence paper for Regulation 15
19.11.06 AGNP Basic Conditions Statement 204.67 KB 2383 downloads
AGNP Basic Conditions Statement for Regulation 15;
19.04.09 AGNP Monitoring Framework 67.29 KB 2202 downloads
AGNP Monitoring Framework for Regulation 16
Aveton Gifford NP SEA Environmental Report_V1.0_091019 2.60 MB 2741 downloads
Strategic Environmental Assessment for AGNP
There are 3 further letters which, because of the restrictions imposed by Data Protection, are not published here, but which are available to be read by contacting Sarah Harcus or David Davis Berry directly.

