Lawshall Neighbourhood Plan

What is a Neighbourhood Plan?

A Neighbourhood Plan is a community-led framework for guiding the future of development in an area. Neighbourhood Plans were introduced as part of a governmental drive toward ‘Localism', handing powers over from government to local areas. A Neighbourhood Plan is developed by the community. Lawshall's Plan is based on what the community have said through community consultation events, a village questionnaire, the housing needs survey and a number of other activities documented in the Plan.

Neighbourhood Plans form part of the statutory development plan. This means that the District Council must use our Plan when deciding planning applications. Neighbourhood Plans cannot block development, but our Plan has helped ensure that some inappropriate proposals have not been allowed to proceed.

Because we have a Neighbourhood Plan, Lawshall Parish Council also receive a larger share of funds raised by any new builds in the village. The village now receives 25% of the Community Infrastructure Levy  ('CIL') rather than 15%. These additional funds are used to benefit the Lawshall community through Lawshall Parish Council.

The original 2017 Neighbourhood Plan for our Parish was adopted in October 2017 by Babergh District Council after it was supported by over 92% of residents who voted in a parish referendum. The world of planning, however, changes continuously and now, after seven years, we have a New and updated 2024 Neighbourhood Plan, which has been brought up to date with current national and local planning policies.

The new plan was reviewed through a full public consultation commencing on 15-Oct-2022 with a drop-in event at Lawshall Village Hall. The display boards from this event can be viewed here. Public consultation continued until 30-Nov-2022, a period of just over six weeks, and 96 sets of comments (written and online) were received, an excellent response!

How to view the NEW Neighbourhood Plan

The new plan was reviewed by an independent examiner. Babergh DC appointed Ann Skippers BSc (Hons) MRTPI FHEA FRSA AoU to carry out this independent examination. Full details of the process and all documents can be found on the Babergh DC website here. The new Neighbourhood Plan can be viewed or downloaded here (dated April 2024) and was formally adopted by Babergh District Council in April 2024. A full copy of the April 2024 adoption statement can be viewed here.