St John's Church parking
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Introduction

What is a Neighbourhood Plan?

Neighbourhood Plans allow communities to develop a shared vision for their neighbourhood, by creating policies that define the development of and use of land within it.

A Plan allows the community to decide where any new homes, shops and offices should be built, specify aspects of their design and the infrastructure needed to support them. 

A group comprising parish councillors and residents created the existing Mortimer Neighbourhood Plan, that gained public approval in 2017 and runs until 2026. It was one of the first in West Berkshire.

There is more information about how Plans are created here. 

 

Why update the Mortimer Neighbourhood Plan?

  • The 2017 Plan ("Version 1") stipulated that if plans for a new doctors’, school and parking had not progressed by July 2022, the usage of the 1 Hectare of land set aside for that purpose should be reviewed. That review is in progress and the Plan will be updated (to "Version 1.1") when that process concludes, assumed to be by mid 2023.
  • Although the 2017 Plan was assumed to be valid until 2026, new local and national government policies can render its policies ineffective or redundant. Additionally the community may wish to add policies or revise existing ones, based on its latest view of what is important or lessons learnt from the current Plan.  A group of councillors and community members is working to shape an updated Plan.("Version 2") to reflect both considerations.  This version is hoped to be approved by Autumn 2024. 

The Status section shows the plan for these updates and the Meetings section the progress.