Brimscombe & Thrupp Parish Council has prepared a Draft Neighbourhood Development Plan for the parish. The Plan proposes a number of planning policies which, once adopted, must be used in the determination of planning applications within the parish/town.

In accordance with The Neighbourhood Plan (General) Regulations 2012, Brimscombe & Thrupp Parish council is required to publicise the Draft Neighbourhood Plan and invite comments. Copies of the Plan were available for public inspection for a period of 8 weeks commencing on Saturday 16th July 2022 and ending at midnight on Saturday 10th September 2022.

This period is now over, and the council is now reviewing and incorporating the feedback recieved into a revised version of the document which will be resubmitted to Stroud District Council. This is expected to be completed by the end of 2022.

Click on the link below to read the draft neighbourhood plan

Our Neighbourhood Development Plan (the "NDP") has been developed to establish a vision for the parish and to help deliver the local community's aspirations and needs

Building from our Brimscombe and Thrupp Parish Plan 2011 – 2016, our Neighbourhood Development Plan will be a planning policy document that will be a statutory document incorporated into the district planning framework and must be used by Stroud District Council to determine planning applications in our parish.

Every effort has been made to ensure that the views and policies contained in this document reflect the views of Brimscombe and Thrupp parish residents.

Some of the key benefits of our Plan are to:

• Enable the community to play its part in addressing climate change
• Protect the parish from uncontrolled or poorly placed development
• Ensure that development is sympathetic to and improved the look and feel of the parish

We are now entering the Public Consultation period (otherwise known as the Regulation 14 Period) in which we invite you to comment on and contribute your thoughts to the plan.

An important part of the NDP is the community design statement. This document is produced by the community, and

• describes its distinctive character in its surroundings
• identifies the landscape setting, the shape of the settlement and the nature of the buildings;
• draws together design principles based on that distinctive local character/ sense of place.

A Community Design Statement gives the context to help manage how changes in terms of land-use and development could work locally, so that it will be in harmony with that distinct community character. The focus is on how a development might look and not on whether or where development should happen. The Local Plan, produced by Stroud District Council, describes forward planning and development strategy and a new version of that document is currently in progress.

Why do communities produce a Community Design Statement?

• To learn more about their own place, and what local people value, want to conserve and enhance
• To give a community line of guidance against which any planning applications can be considered
• To influence the emerging Local Plan
• To give guidance for any development, so that it can be incorporated in pre-application discussion