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Newsletter February 2021

Regulation 14 Consultation Closes

 The 8 1/2 week MACK Plan Regulation 14 consultation period is now complete.  Thank you to all those who took the time and made the effort to submit comments. As well as consulting with residents we were legally required to consult with organisations such as Devon County Council, Natural England etc, also local landowners/agents and local organisations.

The MACK Plan Committee will now review all the comments that have been received whether from residents or from statutory consultees.  Where appropriate, we will amend the plan to reflect the comments that we have received.  All comments, our response to them and any resulting amendments to the MACK Plan will be incorporated into a formal document that is known as the Consultation Statement.  We will publish a section of this on the website so that you can see our response to your comments and any changes to the MACK Plan that have resulted. We will issue another Newsletter when this full schedule of comments and responses is available on the website.

The amended version of the MACK Plan then becomes known as the Regulation 15 version.  The preparation and checking of this updated plan will probably be completed in April.  It, along with the Consultation Statement, the Evidence Base and various other documents are then formally submitted to WDBC.  We will publish the documents in this Regulation 15 submission on the MACK Plan website when they are submitted. WDBC will then publicise a second period of consultation on the MACK Plan which will last for 6 weeks.  This is known as Regulation 16 and gives you a second opportunity to comment.

Thank you again to all who have commented.

MACK Plan Team

Newsletter September 2020

Using the evidence gathered during the various resident and commissioned surveys, and resident comments made at public meetings, we have drafted a Neighbourhood Plan which we believe contains policies that the residents regard as important as well as meeting the mandatory national and regional government rules.  In March we publicised a Call for Sites asking landowners to propose potential sites that meet the outline policies detailed in our draft plan.

We have had responses concerning 10 sites and now need to undertake an assessment of the feasibility and relative benefits of each of these sites. This site assessment will be completely transparent and demonstrably independent in nature.  It is being conducted over the next 2 months by a national organisation called AECOM who conduct many of these assessments.  The assessment will include unaccompanied site visits.

Once we have received the results of the AECOM survey we will have gathered all the evidence that is needed to complete the draft plan. Our intention then is to undertake a detailed consultation of the plan both with the Parish Council and with local residents.  Clearly the restrictions imposed by COVID 19 will make this consultation more difficult than it would otherwise have been and we will probably have to do much of it online.  We ask that you bear with us during this period as we would have much preferred to have held large face to face public meetings.

In the meantime, if you have any questions then please email us at:MACKPLAN2019@gmail.com

Newsletter March 2020

Housing

We had 108 survey forms submitted in response to the distribution of the Housing Needs Survey on the 11th January. The information was independently analysed and the report and its conclusions are available in the Evidence Section of this website.  One of the main conclusions is that there is a requirement for a small number of affordable houses (rented or shared purchase) and open market one, two or three bedroom houses.

We are very grateful for the support of residents in submitting the forms and also for those who attended the drop-in meetings on the 25th January.

This survey together with the independent Housing Needs Assessment (HNA) and the Residents Survey undertaken in 2017 now gives the Mackplan Team a strong evidence base of local housing requirements to put forward proposals in the draft Neighbourhood Plan. The HNA report and the Residents Survey summary can also be viewed in the Evidence Section.

Call for Sites

The next stage in the drafting of the Neighbourhood Plan is the identification of sites which might be considered suitable for housing development. So the Mackplan Team have issued a Call for Sites in which landowners and developers are invited to submit sites which they would like to be considered for future housing development.  This Call for Sites and its supporting guidance can be found in the Possible Development Sites section of this website.  The deadline for the submission of completed forms is 4pm on Monday 20th April 2020.

It is important to be clear that submitting land for consideration does not mean that it will be allocated in the Neighbourhood Plan or mean it is more likely to gain planning permission. All sites will be discussed  with the Parish Council and WDBC and then reviewed at a meeting of local residents prior to an eventual referendum on the whole Neighbourhood Plan.

If you wish to contact the Mackplan Team then please email us at:

                        MACKPLAN2019@gmail.com

January 2021 News

MACK Plan Printed Version Distribution

The MACK Plan is now printed and our intention had been to hand deliver a copy to each household this coming weekend.  However, even though there is probably enough leeway in the lockdown rules to get away with hand delivery, doing so is not in the spirit of the lockdown and however minimal the risk might be, the welfare of residents must take priority.  We have therefore decided to distribute the hard copies to you by Royal Mail which should now arrive by post by the end of next week.  The deadline for comments will remain 20 February.

MACK Plan Team

Newsletter January 2020

MACKPLan Consultancy in full swing!


The official consultancy programme on the draft MACKPLan has now reached the halfway stage. The Regulation 14 Consultancy will finish on the 20th of February 2021.

The MACKPLan team are very pleased that many residents have sent in comments either by posting them on the MACKPLan website mackplan.org.uk or by sending them by email. Hard copies of the draft plan have been sent to 442 households in the MACKPLan area. If you have not received a hard copy, then please send an email to garyvanstone@btinternet.com and we will endeavour to get a copy to you.

A number of the comments received have supported the housing policy proposed in the draft plan, including the choice of proposed building sites. These sites were recommended by the AECOM independent site review.

If residents support these site proposals then we would like to hear from you.The more support we receive the more likely we are to be able resist planning applications which could undermine the MACKPlan proposals.

As well as residents the draft MACKPLan has been sent to 43 Statutory Consultees (such as WDBC, Devon County Council, English Heritage etc), local landowners and local organisations.
Once the consultation period is over any changes to the plan as a result of comments received will be published on the MACKPLan website.

January 2020 – Housing Needs Survey and Drop In Events

On January 11th the MACKPLAN team will be distributing to every household within our area a Housing Needs Survey. This is survey is aimed at providing us with more information on the current and future housing requirements of residents.

We appreciate that a similar survey was completed in 2017 but we have been strongly advised by West Devon Borough Council to undertake a new completely independent survey. So this survey has been drawn up by an independent body and will be assessed by them. The completed forms will be confidential and will not be seen by members of the Neighbourhood Planning team or the Parish Council.

With the forms, there will be a covering letter of explanation on why it is required. We would be most grateful if you could complete and return the forms it will help us in gathering the necessary evidence for the potential Neighbourhood Plan.

The MACKPLAN team will also be holding drop-in events on the 25th January between 1pm and 4pm. Members of the team will be available to answers your questions on the Housing Needs Survey and on the progress, we are making on the Neighbourhood Plan.  Your ideas and comments are vital to the neighbourhood planning process and will be thoroughly welcomed so please do drop in on 25 Jan.

The drop-in events will be at the following locations:

  • Milton Abbot Village Hall
  • Kelly Village Hall
  • The ‘Old Smithy’ Chillaton