The most recent minutes of the Steering Group, and updated versions of the Neighbourhood Plan, are available on our Documents & Links page

What is happening with the Neighbourhood Plan?

Written on 31 May 2022

The final Examiners report has been sent to Wiltshire Council. Consequently a ‘Decision Notice’ has been issued by Wiltshire Council, received on 26th May, and with this a set of required amendments to the MANP.

• The most significant material amendment is the removal of the Salisbury Road site from the plan.
• The ‘Decision Notice’, subject to these amendments, recommends for the MANP to move to referendum. Wiltshire Council has also issued notification of the referendum date as 11th August.
• The MANP amendments will be made in house where possible week beginning 6th June, and if needed will commission in external consultants for some technical changes.
• The amended MANP has to be returned to Wiltshire Council by 22nd June.

These documents will be discussed at the Planning Committee Meeting of Marlborough Town Council on 6 June and the MANP Steering Group is meeting on 7th June to plan for how best to promote the plan and the referendum date.  The documents are available on our Documents & Links page.

Written on 31 March 2022

Following the Regulation 16 consultation (see below) the revised draft Plan was scrutinised by an independent examiner appointed by Wiltshire Council.  The Examiner's questions have been answered and you can read the Neighbourhood Plan Steering Group's Response here.
The most recent questions to Wiltshire Council were:

Q1: As mentioned to the QBs (qualifying body), I am not presented with the comments of the Environment Agency on the independently prepared SEA (Strategic Environmental Assessment). Please would you check whether comments were received as part of the Reg16 Consultation and, if not, please would you press the Environment Agency to make their comments, or acknowledge that they don't have comments to make.

Q2: Would the Council's current experience of viability assessments (or the like) indicate that a 50% affordable housing requirement is deliverable whilst not compromising on other policy expectations, such as design, open space, mitigation measures, etc?

Q3: The QBs have suggested that "Where there have been rare opportunities [in Marlborough] for significant brownfield site developments in the last decade or more, they have most often been developed for age-restricted, retirement complexes". Is there any available data that would support or quantify this statement?
You can read Wiltshire Council's Response here:

Wiltshire Council Response
Appendix 1 - North Wessex Downs AONB
Appendix 2 - Environment Agency
Appendix 3 - List of green/brownfield sites/age restricted developments

Written on 14 December 2021

Following the Regulation 14 public consultation for people living in the Neighbourhood Plan area, the draft Plan was reviewed and amended to take residents’ views into account.  The FAQs on the website were also updated to respond to some queries that people raised during the consultation.

The revised draft Plan was then submitted to Wiltshire Council, which undertook its own consultation exercise, called Public Consultation (Regulation 16).  This process closed on 8 November.  There were comments made by both statutory bodies and by members of the public.

The MANP Steering Group reviewed these comments and went back to Wiltshire Council with observations and explanations were necessary (some of the comments repeated those from the Regulation 14 exercise and have already been addressed).  There is unfortunately still some misunderstanding as to what the remit of the Neighbourhood Plan is.  For example, it is not within the power of the Steering Group to allocate land for an expanded surgery (identified by the surgery itself and by local people as a key need).  It is for the Clinical Commissioning Group and the surgery to provide the service needed.  The Steering Group tried to support the surgery in that task by facilitating discussions with the Police Commissioner about using the old police station (not pursued by the surgery) and by asking landowners for sites that might be used.  The only site offered was that close to the leisure centre in Barton Dene.  Neither can the MANP provide land for sports; no landowners offered such land.  The next best thing the MANP can do is have policies to reflect the priority to be given in these areas, which, if the Plan is adopted, will inform Wiltshire Council planning decisions.

It was encouraging to see comments which endorsed the Plan, and supported the suggested sites for housing, which would help with the provision of affordable housing.

Wiltshire Council has appointed an independent external examiner, whose role it is to review the draft plan and confirm whether it should go forward for a referendum.

Wiltshire Council has not provided a timescale, but any referendum would probably not be held before February 2022.

For more information, please refer to this useful step by step guide on the Wiltshire Council’s website -  https://www.wiltshire.gov.uk/planning-neighbourhood-process

Public Consultation (Regulation 16): 20 September to 8 November 2021

Draft Marlborough Area Neighbourhood Plan (2021 – 2036) Regulation 16 Consultation

Wiltshire Council consulted on the proposed Draft Marlborough Area Neighbourhood Plan, which was formally submitted by Marlborough Town Council.

Following this consultation, the comments received were passed to an independent examiner to consider the representations and recommend whether the draft Neighbourhood Plan should be put to a community referendum.

The consultation started on Monday 20 September 2021 and closed on Monday 8 November 2021.

Please be aware that all representations will be publicly available and may also appear on the Wiltshire Council website.

Further information including the submitted draft neighbourhood plan and how to comment were available online via http://www.wiltshire.gov.uk/planning-neighbourhood-consultations

Where possible, responders were asked to provide any comments using the Consultation Portal. Alternatively, an editable representation form was available to be downloaded from the Supporting Files section on the consultation portal, and completed forms could either be emailed to neighbourhoodplanning@wiltshire.gov.uk or sent by post to:

Spatial Planning Team, Economic Development and Planning, Wiltshire Council, County Hall, Bythesea Road, Trowbridge BA14 8JN

A copy was also available on request by calling neighbourhood planning on 01225 713598 or 713986.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact Spatial Planning on Tel: 01225 713598 or by email to neighbourhoodplanning@wiltshire.gov.uk

Read and download a Press Release here

Public Consultation (Regulation 14): 18 January to 8 March 2021

This consultation is now closed - thank you to everyone who submitted their comments.
You can still read about the consultation and open the draft plan and supporting documents by clicking the link below.

Marlborough Neighbourhood Area Designation
A Consultation on an application for the amendment of the Marlborough Neighbourhood Area closed on 16 November 2020.

The Designation of Marlborough Neighbourhood Area was approved on 18 November 2020 in accordance with section 61G of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 as amended for the purposes of Neighbourhood Planning and Part 2 of the Neighbourhood Planning (General) Regulations 2012 as amended 2016.  A copy of the decision notice including a map which identifies the area is available here. 

Read the Minutes of the Steering Group Meetings