Information for Agents and Developers
Policy 5 (Community Engagement) of Neighbourhood Plan 1 aims to facilitate a structured approach to enable effective involvement of the local community in outline and full planning applications.
The above policy and the Community Engagement Protocol seek to ensure that new development in the Neighbourhood Plan area delivers good quality places to live and work. Its use will also contribute to improved outcomes for the current and future communities, as well as assisting applicants to make applications that accord with this plan and with those of Wiltshire Council.
Early discussion between applicants and the local community, as well as with the Local Planning Authority, from the earliest stages enables a more collaborative approach to the process of preparing a development proposal that will need to balance many factors as the design evolved.
Initial contact by prospective applicants for planning permission in either Melksham or Melksham Without should be made at the very outset with the Town and / or Parish Councils. See the pre-application protocol for more information and contact details.
“Applicants should work closely with those affected by their proposals to evolve designs that take account of the views of the community. Applications that can demonstrate early, proactive and effective engagement with the community should be looked on more favourably than those that cannot.” (NPPF paragraph128).