Category: News

There never is any meeting of The Council in December but the first meeting in The New Year will be held in The Old School Room on the 8th of January when Martin Hutchins will be revealing the results of The Parish Housing Survey which if you recall took place late September when questionnaires were posted to every household in The Village and at least 600 completed papers were returned which was a most remarkable response. Please come to the meeting and discover first hand what the residents in Highnam have requested regarding future housing needs affecting Our Village. The results of the survey are going to have a most important contribution to the urgent reappraisal and revaluation of our Neighbourhood Development Plan. The Original Plan had to be assessed and tempered in order to satisfy before it’s submission to Tewkesbury Borough Council but the inspector emasculated our original submission, hence the need to strengthen the NDP bearing in mind Highnam is open to  speculative planning applications from unwelcome Developers.

The Planning group comprising of Valerie Tustin Smith, Charlie Coates, Nick Cooke, Mike welch and David Crofts met to discuss Highnam’s response to the draft Tewkesbury Borough Plan which is presented to the public for consultation and amendment.  David Crofts has been engaged by The Parish Council in an advisory capacity to examine “the plan” which tries to cover the proposed land requirements for housing until 20031. In the proposed Borough Plan the village of Highnam is not scheduled for any further housing build but the original proposed allocation for housing build in existing plans was for 130 units of which 88 can be accounted for – Lassington Reach- leaving a shortfall of 42 units. Now the proposed Oakridge planning application to build 40 units which is still awaiting the decision from The Inspector whether to grant or refuse is still on hold and will not be published until late December or early January and The Inspector’s decision is final and there will be no further grounds for appeal. Therefore The Parish Council’s response to the proposed Borough Plan is essential in order to safeguard Highnam Village from any speculative development and so David Crofts has submitted a very detailed itemised analysis and critique of The Plan as far as it affects Highnam.