A meeting of Rushcliffe Borough Councillors this week is expected to agree that the Ruddington Neighbourhood Plan should proceed to a referendum among villagers.*
It’s after independent examiner David Kaiserman concluded that the Regulation 15 Submission Version met the ‘prescribed basic conditions’ and other statutory requirements – although this was subject to a total of 32 modifications he outlined in his March 2021 report. After a few further tweaks since, the final version is now ready to be discussed by the Council’s Cabinet – which is expected to rubber-stamp the important 120 page document at its June 8th 2021 meeting. The full agenda is >>HERE<<.
As reported frequently by RUDDINGTON.info over the years, it’s been a long and difficult journey for the dedicated group of hard working volunteers who’ve been pulling all this together since the Parish of Ruddington was designated as a ‘Neighbourhood Area’ in October 2017. Numerous meetings and public consultations – both physical and virtual (due to COVID19) – have taken place in order to reach this stage. The project has been made even more challenging by the approval of the Rushcliffe Local Plan Part 2 in the meantime. This has resulted in four major new housing estates totalling 578 homes being granted planning permission on Green Belt land in Ruddington – despite considerable and often bitter local opposition. Some of the former open countryside now being built upon might perhaps have been ‘spared’ if there had been a Ruddington Neighbourhood Plan in place sooner.
Assuming the majority of residents approve (rather than reject it) in the forthcoming referendum, the final publication of the Ruddington Neighbourhood Plan and its adoption into the Rushcliffe Local Plan will take place. At least then RBC will have a clear mandate to follow next time – a legally binding record of where villagers would (and would not) like to see further development and infrastructure changes to take place. Proposals within ‘The Greater Nottingham Strategic Plan’ involving considerable further house building in Ruddington by 2038 are already on the table, so construction-weary Ruddingtonians can live in hope that it will be different this time.
You can read more of the history on the ‘roadmap’ to achieve our final Ruddington Neighbourhood Plan >>HERE<<.
*UPDATE 8th June 7.31pm:
Ruddington’s Neighbourhood Plan Referendum was passed unanimously by Cabinet tonight – with all the hard work by village volunteers in creating it, then following it through, acknowledged by the Borough Councillors.
The date for this referendum will be Thursday 22nd July 2021 – and soon all villagers should be receiving through our letterboxes notification of how we can vote.
RUDDINGTON.info will bring you a further update nearer the time.
