As part of Yateley, Darby Green and Frogmore’s Neighbourhood Plan, a climate change poster exhibition was held on February 29 at Yateley School. Out of the 1000 posters submitted by students from 7 local schools, 150 of these posters were displayed which expressed students’ concerns about climate change and their proposals for limiting its impact. Some of the messages were very clear and were captured by the sentiment ‘The climate is changing so why aren’t we’.

It is clear that these students realise the threat that climate change pose and therefore have suggested ways in which each of us can reduce our greenhouse gas emissions which are responsible for global warming.

The Town Mayor, Cllr Gerry Crisp, launched Yateley’s Resident Survey which is the second step in developing Yateley, Darby Green and Frogmore’s Neighbourhood Plan. The Plan covers 18 policy areas and will provide planning guidance as to how its residents would like their settlements to evolve over the next 15 years.

Local community groups were also represented including Yateley library which like all libraries in Hampshire are subject to a consultation about how to reduce the cost of library service because of the deficit in Hampshire’s budget.

Policy proposals include maintaining gaps between settlements, minimising the risk of flooding by preventing any further development in areas lying within the 1 in 100 year flood plain, reversing the decline in biodiversity by green planning and encouraging local generation of electricity and heat.

The draft Plan and Annex can be accessed at from our Spring 2020 Public Survey page. Once adopted in a referendum, YDF’s Neighbourhood Plan will sit under the Local Plan of Hart District Council and will have legal status.

The latest draft Plan and Annex are now ready for review by the public as part of the Spring 2020 Public Survey

To see the documents, look in the Plan section of our Document Repository, or click the following link:

https://ydf-np.org.uk/category/plan/

Please do take a few minutes to help the Steering Group tailor the plan to the desires of the local residents by completing our survey. For details of the survey, check out the following lik:

https://ydf-np.org.uk/progress/survey-spring-2020/

As we draw close to the end of 2019, we decided it was prudent to reflect on the progress we have made so far. Rayner, our Vice-Chair, has put together the following summary of where we are:

Schools

Some 7 schools are taking part in our climate change poster competition and judging is under way at 3 of the schools.  It is clear that students are concerned about the changing climate and understand what changes are needed to limit climate change.

At our next meeting we plan to consider what actions schools can undertake locally.

Workshops

Two workshops have so far been held covering some 14 policy areas and the remaining five topics will be considered at workshop #3 scheduled for January 2020

These workshops have provided the context for compiling the first draft of our Plan and Annex and these will be published to the website shortly.

Questionaire

We have compiled the draft questionnaire in the form of a double sided A3 sheet and this will allow the group to get more public feedback on our identified policy areas early in 2020.

Timeline

Our plan is to launch the questionnaire during February assuming that we can complete the first draft of the 3 documents and agree these at our next Steering Group meeting on 21 January.

We are always keen to see fresh faces and help, so why not make 2020 the year that you offer your help to get this neighbourhood plan in place to formally reflect the priorities of the local population. The neighbourhood plan will form an annex to the Hart Local Plan.

Please ‘Like’ our Facebook page if you haven’t already.

A document outlining the policies that the group has identified to be developed for the Neighbourhood Plan has now been released for discussion and further development.

The latest newsletter from Yateley Town Council has a feature on the Neighbourhood Plan.

Take a look at the Autumn 2019 newsletter located at:

http://yateley-tc.gov.uk/Town_Guide_and_Newsletter.aspx

Progress continues on our Neighbourhood Plan, which covers Yateley, Darby Green and Frogmore. The Steering Group, made up of residents, businesses and Councillors, are working hard to produce a plan to give the local community direct power to shape the development and growth of the local area.

 Chairman, Cllr Richard Quarterman, said “Our Neighbourhood Plan will provide an additional layer of control over development decisions. It will protect against inappropriate, speculative development and state the community’s vision and expectations for own town. Our Neighbourhood Plan will complement and reinforce Hart District Council’s Local Plan and form an annex to it. We would welcome new people joining to help us build the plan.”

 Five subgroups have been set up:

·         Housing and Development

·         Getting Around

·         Open Space and Wildlife

·         Leisure

·         Business and Regeneration

If you are interested in joining a subgroup, or just finding out more about the Neighbourhood Plan, please visit the Sub-Groups section

We’ll be talking about the community priorities.