Rye Town Council’s Planning Committee agreed a further update on the town’s draft Neighbourhood Plan (now in its tenth version) on Monday night, December 11, as the plan slowly moves towards a public referendum in the town on the final version.
If the referendum approves the plan it is then binding on local planning decisions, but it is a long road to get to that point.
Back in 2014 a survey went out to all households, and a steering group then drafted a plan which was discussed at meetings in 2016 like the one shown in the photograph above.
However other bodies also have long term plans, and these bodies include East Sussex County Council, the planning authority Rother District Council (RDC), the Environment Agency (flood controls) and the Department of Transport (road and rail changes), and these have been approached informally to ensure Rye’s draft Neighbourhood Plan is not at odds with others’ plans.
Those bodies are now being “formally consulted” in what is called a public consultation early in 2018 before a “final version” of the draft is agreed by the Town Council and put to the vote in a public referendum in the town – possibly later next year.
Local residents have already been widely consulted in 2014 and 2016, and the referendum will be their opportunity to vote on the end result.
One area of ongoing uncertainty is that the County Council is currently looking at plans for the Greenway, a pedestrian bridge over the River Tillingham between Tilling Green and the Love Lane area, which may affect what the Neighbourhood Plan says on this issue.
Another area that may need tidying up is that the Plan’s map of commercial activity in Rye includes Strand Quay (where there are over a dozen businesses) while an RDC map does not – and preferably both should be saying the same thing.
Photo: Rye News Library
Photo: Rye News Library
Image Credits: Rye News library .