Welcome to the website of the Newent Neighbourhood Development Plan (NDP) for the parish of Newent. This website will help you to find out more about what the NDP is, what we do, and how you can help make Newent a better place for everyone in the future.
Major development is coming to Newent now and in the near future. We need a plan and we need a vision. Our Neighbourhood Development Plan is the best way to develop that vision for Newent’s future. Through this process, the community of Newent can help shape the future of the town and its surroundings while protecting the areas we treasure.
By creating an NDP, local people can have their say about how our town of Newent develops over the next two decades. The NDP Steering Group collects evidence through research, surveys and consultations. The anonymous data gathered by surveys will be used alongside information from statutory bodies and other relevant organisations to help build a picture of local needs, aspirations and opportunities. A professional planner then uses the evidence gathered to help the Group form the policies which make up the Neighbourhood Development Plan.
The Forest of Dean District Council (FoDDC), our Local Planning Authority, has the duty to create a district-wide Local Plan. This will contain policies and site allocations which should help shape the development of the town. An NDP must be in general conformity with the Local Plan of the authority in which it sits. The government sets a housing target, and the District Council must do its best to meet that target. The NDP provides more detailed information than is possible to include in the Local Plan, because it is made by local people who live and work here.
Newent town centre, with its Market House and a fine array of historic buildings lining the main thoroughfares, contains the largest concentration of listed buildings, many of them medieval, within the Forest of Dean district. Beyond the centre, the town has developed along the main routes east, west and south in a piecemeal fashion, without any overarching plan for connectivity or community facilities.
In particular, Newent has experienced layer upon layer of new housing to the south-east which has no overall coherence. Nearly 1,100 houses have been built in Foley Rd, Onslow Rd, Meek Rd and Merlin Gate since the early 1970s, with just one vehicular exit onto Gloucester Street, although footpaths do give pedestrians access into the town centre. This extensive housing development has been provided with little in the way of community facilities other than a recreation ground with a Multi-Use Games area (MUGA) and a few small areas with play equipment. One community building proposed for the Meek Road Recreation Ground was built instead at the Watery Lane Recreation Ground.
It is expected that Newent will be allocated over 1,000 more houses in the next Local Plan, which will cover between ten and twenty years.
Proposals for other vital facilities and infrastructure such as a larger Health Centre, space for a supermarket, expanded sewage treatment works, green spaces and improved travel routes for pedestrians, cyclists and mobility scooter users, need to be included as part of the local planning process, required to meet the government’s hugely increased housing targets. Planning must also take account of the need to protect and enhance the unique built and natural environmental assets of the town and its surroundings, which are very much valued by local people and visitors. It is vital that development is, as far as possible, in harmony with the special character of Newent and its parish, as well as with the wishes and aspirations of local people.
The best way to influence how Newent develops, working alongside the FoDDC’s Local Plan, is to put our community’s views forward as part of the Neighbourhood Development Plan. The resulting policies will then have official weight within the planning process, once the NDP is finalised. This means that, when any subsequent planning application is made which has implications for Newent, consideration must be given to the policies within the NDP.
We are making progress, but there is still much to do. If you care about how our town and the surrounding area develops, please consider joining the team of residents and councillors who make up the Steering Group for Newent Neighbourhood Development Plan. To do this, you can contact the Steering Group via the webpage https://www.newentourfuture.co.uk/contact-us/ or telephone Councillor Gill Moseley on 01531 82082.
