NEWS

November 2020 - Delay to Windsor Neighbourhood Plan Referendum decision finally over?

Last February the Windsor Neighbourhood Plan was found to be sound by an independent examiner, subject to some changes to be agreed with Royal Borough.  Thereafter, it should have had a Decision Notice published by the Borough within 5 weeks.  Had all been well, we would have gone to referendum in May 2020.   However Covid seriously delayed it.  Now the Head of Planning Policy, Adrien Waite has given his commitment for the report to go to Cabinet on 17^th December 2020.

Once the Decision Notice is agreed, the Plan will legally have some weight in planning decisions.  Thereafter, the Plan could go forward for a Referendum on 6^th May 2021.  This date is already in the calendar for other local elections.

You can see the draft Plan on the website www.windsorplan.org.uk

The plan has been produced by a dedicated group of local volunteers, designated by RBWM in 2014, who followed the extensive legal process required and is based on 6 rounds of consultation.  It is essentially about what should get planning permission in the suburban Windsor area.  It is separate and different from the Borough Local Plan, which applies at a Borough wide level.  

The plan aims to drive up the standards of development in the town, and at the same time protect what people have said they value and feel is special about Windsor.

It includes policies to protect the WNP areas open spaces, green character, its local heritage, important views, pubs, and the quality of housing amenities.

It includes a Design Guide, which shows the character of the different areas of Windsor and is a tool for developers to determine which features are typical of the town and are valued by the people who live here.  It has a detailed Views policy, which shows the important public views across the WNP area and also a policy to improve the Alma Road former Imperial House site.

Checking out Planning Applications in Windsor

There have been some significant applications recently in which we, along with others,  have fought for the best outcome, in accordance with what Windsorians have told us they want to see, including:

The saving (again) of Essex Lodge.

With a horrible sense of deja vue,  I spoke for the fourth time on behalf of the WNP and Boltons Residents against the application to demolish Essex Lodge (on the right of the photo) at the Planning Panel on 18^th November 2021.

There have been 4 attempts by developers in 8 years to get permission to knock down this attractive Victorian house at the junction of Bolton Ave and Osborne Road and to replace it with flats.  It has also been refused at three Planning Appeals.  It was a close-run thing, but it was again refused with the panel voting 5:3 against the plans.

We argued that removal of this original building will be a loss of local heritage and harm the visual “gateway” aspects of this prominent site, as well as harm the Conservation area  The benefit of gaining a few flats (over conversion) is not worth the harm it would cause.  

Local councillors agreed with us.  This case is something of a test on how important original local heritage buildings are to councillors who make the panel decision.  

The attractive black and white timbered building sits just on the outside of the inner Windsor Conservation Area and so lacks the same protection as its “twin” counterpart (Kings House) on the other side of the road.  Part of an original cluster of buildings (of which Essex Lodge, The Coach House, and Kings House remain) and built for Queen Victoria’s dressmaker, it is now in the Local List of Non-Designated Heritage Assets developed by The Windsor and Eton Society, with the help of Borough Conservation Officers. Once more common, examples of this type are becoming rare locally.

76% of respondents to the Neighbourhood Plan Vision Survey said that protection of local heritage was of the highest importance to them, so the Plan heritage policy encourages preservation of such buildings.

The former Thames Valley Hospice Hatch Lane, Pine Lodge.

How important is community involvement in major planning decisions?

The Neighbourhood Plan tries to give the local community some influence on what is built in their area.  The Plan cannot stop development, but can help to shape and style new/refurbished buildings based on evidence and in accordance with community support.

The Plan can help to provide local evidence to support valid planning objections.  The recent re-submission for the former Thames Hospice site is a case in point.  After the previous application for 49 units was refused by Borough in August 2021, we were able to discuss with the developers our community hopes for this site.  We were able to point to problems with the appearance, density, design and layout, poor access to the on-site open space for inhabitants and difficulties with the drives of houses directly onto a narrow part of Hatch Lane.  

The design has been amended and resubmitted by the developer.  Our Design Guide enabled us to point to evidence that could improve the design and make the development more likely to enhance the local area rather than detract from it.  Many of these have been incorporated into the new design.

All planning decisions are a balance between competing interests and Borough officers and councillors have to make a judgement for the greater good.  We believe that the Plan provides evidence to summarise and support local wishes.

Claire Milne   

Co-Chair Windsor Neighbourhood Plan 30^th November 2020

4th November 2019 Examination began.

5th July 2019 - WNP Completed Regulation 16 Consultation

18 April 2019 - WNP Submitted to RBW 

We are delighted that Windsor Neighbourhood Plan was submitted on Thursday 18th April to the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead for its Regulation 15 Final Consultation stage.

You can see copies of the plan and the associated documents below. 

Now the plan goes through a process of  RBWM Consultation, examination, and hopefully finally, Referendum.

Watch this space for further news.

9 April 2019 - WNP Agreed

After 5 years in the making, on 9 April 2019, the Windsor Neighbourhood Plan forum voted to submit the WNP to RBWM for its Final Consultation, Examination and Referendum.  Thank you to everyone for giving us your time, energy and feedback throughout this very important process.

November 2018

We are delighted to say that at our well attended Forum meeting last night the members unanimously approved the latest draft for Consultation.

The Consultation will run from 19th November until 13th Jan (8 weeks).

Thanks to our members for attending and for the continuing support.

May 2018

We want to keep you updated on progress since our last update on 8th February. As always lots is going on behind the scenes and although it might not always seem like it, we are working as fast as we can to get our WNP to completion!

Here are the highlights from the last few months:

•The new grant funds were received in February.

•We commissioned AECOM in early March to do the necessary Sustainability Appraisal/Strategic Environmental Assessment and to do a final redraft of policies.

•AECOM have now redrafted the policies and the committee has reviewed and agreed the final wording.

•Work is ongoing among the committee to revise design guides, maps, Appendices and delivery and implementation tables and evidence list appropriate to the final draft policies.

• Detailed work is ongoing concerning Open Spaces, ensuring that we have identified and categorised all of the Urban Open Spaces, and in particular identified Local Green Space.

•Website has been updated.

•AECOM has been working on the SEA process running concurrently with the policy redrafting work..

•The SEA Scoping report and consultation with statutory consultees completed in April.

•The SEA Identification of any reasonable alternatives to the policies is currently being done, prior to completion of the Environmental report

•The committee has reviewed and commented on the emerging BLP for the examination process

•Committee members will attend the BLP examination hearings 26th-28th June,

•Committee has attended RBWM planning policy meeting with Parishes/NPs regarding Infrastructure.

•Planning Applications throughout the area, (including Legoland and former the Alma Road/Imperial House) have been monitored and responded to.

•members responded to the Ward Boundary review

•GDPR privacy policy and mailing list has been updated and communicated

We are aiming to present the latest draft of the WNP to the Forum in July and give sufficient time to read it before meeting to discuss and approve it.We hope to be in touch very soon with a date for the next Forum meeting.

Best regards

WNP Committee 30/5/2018

March 5th 2018

We have now been approved for and received additional grant funding via Locality to cover some specific matters.

Feb 2nd 2018

Currently the WNP policies are being refined by the group in consultation with our consultants, AECOM, and the

background work is being done to get the policies into a final form.

Much happened in 2017 that has had to be taken into account in the WNP (including the Borough Local Plan submission) and this has slowed progress, but we are hopeful that we will reach a conclusion in 2018.

Nov 2016:  WNP Pre submission consultation

Jan-April 2017:  Analysis of results from pre-submission consultation and revision of draft

May 2017:  BLP  Reg 19 Consultation published and taken into account.

June 2017: Revised WNP sent for “Healthcheck” to an independent examiner

July to Dec 2017:  Feedback from the “Healthcheck” and from the RBWM received and reviewed. Redrafting continues.

Our Plan Area is regarded as having “complex” needs and as having some unique issues.  As a consequence, we have been offered extra government support by the Department of Communities and Local Government.

•Additional technical support in the form of free consultancy hours has been agreed via the government agency, Locality which will cover a Strategic Environmental Assessment.

•In addition, we have been approved to apply for additional grant funding via Locality to cover some specific matters and we are waiting to hear if this application has been successful.

Due to the above re-work, we will, most probably have to re-submit our Plan for the Regulation 14 Pre-Submission Consultation.  We hope to do this in the Spring, followed by preparation of the Final Draft for submission to the Council later in 2018.  The Referendum should follow.

17 December 2016

Thank you for all of you who responded to our Pre-Submission (Regulation 14) consultation which

closed in November 2016. We have been reviewing all of the responses received and will report on the position in early 2017.

We now also have seen the draft RBWM Borough Local Plan (out for public consultation between 2nd Dec 2016 and 13 th Jan 2017) which is a crucial document for us. We are feeding our views back to

RBWM on the BLP and at the same time doing the necessary work to ensure that our plan meets the basic conditions of general conformity with the BLP.

Also Windsor2030 (Central Windsor Business Neighbourhood Plan) is starting to emerge. We are also working to take this into account.

We hope to report back to the WNP Forum in early 2017 on the results of all of this work and produce a FINAL Draft WNP shortly thereafter.

Our sincere thanks go to all of our members and particularly our fantastic Committee - all volunteers - who are working so hard on doing our best for Windsor and aiming for a WNP Referendum in 2017.

02 June 2016

Our latest May 2016 Newsletter is now available, click here to download. Or read it here by putting your cursor over the top right corner and choosing "pop out" to make it open in a new window.

13 January 2016

29 December 2015

On 23rd January 2016 (10am-4pm Gardeners Hall, St Leonards Road) and via our website, we will be consulting on some of our options on the following;

• Dedworth Road Urban Design ideas,
• Development Options for the vacant site between Alma Road and Vansittart Road
• Design and Architecture throughout our area that people want to see.
• Views worth preserving in and around the WNP area

29 December 2015

So here we are, another year over. Although we may have been quiet for a while, a lot of work has been going on behind the scenes, and we are delighted to announce that we are making real progress on our NP.

WNP First Milestone reached

We achieved a real milestone on 9th November, by presenting our first full draft of our policy options to our Forum  (as well as to landowners and others who may be affected) for consideration.  This is not a public document yet, but it will be shared soon once all of the initial feedback is received and any necessary changes have been made. The first responses we have received are very positive.

Our policies range across the following: ideas for major potential development sites, character and appearance, getting around, housing and community, working and shopping, and the natural environment, and have been drawn up with assistance from consultants AECOM.

We have a little bit to do before we present our ideas for the first public consultation of the draft plan (This will hopefully be in February/March 2016).

Those of you who have been following our journey will know that members of the Committee and some members of the Forum have spent an enormous amount of hard work in their own time to get to this point, and we give them our sincere thanks for this.

We are excited at what the New Year will bring. We hope to finally bring our Neighbourhood Plan to Referendum around the summer of 2016.

A happy Christmas and New Year to you all.

Claire Milne/John Bastow WNP Co- Chairs Alison Logan, Susy Shearer, Helen Price, Jane Carter……Committee

14 July 2015

The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead are currently seeking Windsor residents to give their input on local planning, please visit 'Borough Local Plan Summer 2015 consultation and beyond' and follow the link to the Borough Local Plan Consultation Summer 2015 Survey, which includes questions about urban spaces and the proposed Windsor Link Railway. This is your opportunity to support, object, comment, suggest.

July 2015

Followers of the long history of NPs in Windsor will be pleased to hear that we have now started to write our plan and policies. The results of our Vision Survey earlier this year allowed us to confirm that we are on the right track, so we are now cracking on. There is still much more work to be done though.

During May we have been able to appoint AECOM consultants to give us technical support in town planning and help us finalise all of our ideas and policies. This will enable us to get our draft plan finalised ready for the next stage of consultation, and to make sure that it meets all of the necessary conditions. This will take the next couple of months,but we hope to have a draft plan in place by the late summer of 2015 ready for the next stage of consultation.

Claire Milne

WNP Co-Chair

For more information Contact us at info@windsorplan.org.uk 

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