When the Parish Council decided to look seriously at the possibility of making a Neighbourhood Plan, it was clear that the Parish Council was going to have to encourage and support it.  Therefore it would be essential that at least some of the Councillors were very familiar with the purposes for, and legal imperatives involved in, Neighbourhood Planning right from the start.

Volunteers from the Parish Council were asked to set up a Neighbourhood Planning Group to co-ordinate development of the Heacham Neighbourhood Plan. However, the whole philosophy behind the creation of a local neighbourhood plan is the involvement of the local community so we are looking for 5 or 6 volunteers to also be part of the Neighbourhood Planning Group.

Support is also available from the Borough Council who will provide access to information, offer advice, and arrange and pay for the examination and the referendum on the Plan that has to be held before the Plan can be formally made.

The job of the Planning Group is not to decide what goes into the Plan, but to gather issues, comments and concerns from residents in every possible way and to build the Neighbourhood Plan from this information.  But we cannot do this alone.

A list of the current Neighbourhood Planning Group members is shown below.

We have also developed Neighbourhood Planning Group Terms of Reference for the group which can be seen here.   The Neighbourhood Planning Group meets on the last Wednesday of each month at 18.30, at the Heacham Parish Office.  Members of the public are welcome.