East Devon District Council has begun a consultation on a new version of the Local Plan. This document is the legal basis for planning decisions in the district together with the National Planning Policy Framework.

The Parish Council has written to all residents highlighting areas of potential concern for the parish. In summary there are two key areas of concern for the parish:

• The draft Local Plan places Hawkchurch in the Tier 4 Service Village category, which means it is viewed as sustainable with “a good range of services that meet the day to day needs of people”. This is significant, as it allows the district to allocate land for development. The current draft has a proposed allocation of 38 homes and 0.15ha of employment land at Norton’s Yard.
• The wording of the energy policies is critical to managing further development of solar farms and potential placement of battery storage installations. At present the wording of these policies is very permissive and we have concerns about the safety and impact of battery storage installations and the impact of further solar installations.

The Local Plan is a legal document and must cover the entire District and deal with everything from towns to Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, so policies are often worded to cover multiple situations. There are also supplementary technical documents which are relevant to Hawkchurch and are part of the consultation but are not easy to find. Links to the consultation and relevant documents are set out opposite. Please respond to EDDC by Sunday 15th January.

When responding you may find that there is more than one policy that covers the point you wish to make. We recommend you repeat your response for each policy so that it is considered by EDDC.

In addition, to capture your views in a way that the Parish Council can use as evidence to support our response and any proposed changes, we have included a questionnaire. This will also give us relevant factual evidence about the parish that we need to support Neighbourhood Planning. Please return your questionnaire by 8th January if possible. You can leave it at the shop or the church or drop it into the hall on one of the drop in days.