Frequently Asked Questions

No, it’s not. Neighbourhood plans can’t allocate and release land from the Green Belt for development. Only Local Plans can do that.

But, and this is a big but, it doesn’t mean there’s now a free for all either. Even if schemes are considered to meet the Grey Belt rules they still have to comply with all the other normal planning policies, just like in villages outside the Green Belt. Which is why our Plan is identifying important views and village edges that should remain free from development and local heritage buildings to conserve their settings.

Yes, although the last plan adopted by the former Chiltern District Council is very old. The new Buckinghamshire Council still applies those policies on landscape, character, access, design etc as they remain generally consistent with national planning policy. But that Local Plan is no help in tackling this new Grey Belt challenge, which has only become a clearer threat to the Parish, and especially Ashley Green village, since February, when the rules changed.

This is because a key factor in defining Grey Belt land is the relative sustainability of the settlement. In practice that means two things: easy access to local facilities and high quality public transport services. We’ve judged that only the village meets those two tests, and even then only just, given it has no school or shop. The other two are not as well served by bus services and have even less in the way of local facilities.

The figure has come from using the Government’s new standard method for calculating future housing supply. Because the method is based on the existing number of homes it can be applied to any settlement, at least as a starting point. We judge that this number is about right for the village but will seek further advice from Buckinghamshire Council in the consultation stage. We do not think it will end up any higher, but it may be lower or covering a longer plan period.

It is important for the Plan to be seen to provide for a scale of housing growth to give it proper weight in decision making once its adopted next year. It is another way of preventing a ‘free for all’ and has enabled us to rule out many potential sites around the village edge that would be too big to fit with a settlement of this small size.

This is an option and one the Parish Council thought about carefully, given the cost of doing this work. Were the Parish really in the middle of nowhere with few or any bus services or facilities then we would not have taken this approach. If Buckinghamshire Council had a five year supply of housing land, the new rules would not be engaged. But, we are a village on the main road between two major towns with our own excellent community facilities, a great pub and we’re well served by bus services linking us to those towns. And the current local housing supply position is less than one year!

In the past, this wouldn’t have mattered because our Green Belt location has prevented development of any scale, and those that have tried in the recent past have failed. But the game has changed significantly since February’s new rules and we want to contain and manage development so that it goes in the best places and is of a scale and design that preserves our rural village character. We believe that leaving these matters to Buckinghamshire Council and developers alone is too risky and we want to be on the front foot.

No, it’s not. This is only an initial ‘testing of the water’ so we can explain what we are trying to do before we commit to the final draft plan in the autumn. We must consult on the Plan for six weeks and take into account all the comments made then. Even that is not the final chance as Buckinghamshire Council must publicise and seek comments on the final version of the Plan for another six weeks as part of its independent examination early in the new year. And of course the ultimate test of community support is the referendum of all Parish voters on the electoral register next spring.  

We will go through all the comments made during this first engagement exercise. We’ll use them to improve the clarity of our Plan documents and to consider changing tack if we perceive a majority of parishioners don’t back what we’re doing. We want a ‘yes’vote at the referendum so we know how important it is to get this right.

In due course, you will be able find out more information about the Steering Group and its members on the Ashley Green Parish Council website. If you would like to join the Neighbourhood Plan Steering Group, please contact ashleygreen.clerk@gmail.com.