Neighbourhood Plan Introduction

About the Neighbourhood Plan

The Neighbourhood Plan will affect everyone in Yarnfield and Cold Meece.

The Local Plan covers the period up to 2040.

The plan area will cover both Yarnfield and Cold Meece and is contiguous with the parish boundary.

The neighbourhood plan provides an opportunity to define a level of detail that is specific to the parish. Once approved, the Neighbourhood Plan will sit alongside Stafford Borough Council’s Local Plan and allow us to have a measure of local control over developments that are proposed in the parish.

The Neighbourhood Planning Process

This is a formal process involving:

• Initial community engagement to identify issues and aims
• Gathering of evidence and ongoing engagement to develop policies, proposals and site allocations
• Statutory consultation
• Submission to Stafford Borough Council and an independent examiner, at which point modifications may be required.
• Once a final document is agreed this is put to a referendum before it is finally adopted.

Once a neighbourhood plan has been adopted by Stafford Borough Council it forms part of the statutory development plan.

Community Involvement

The importance of the community in preparing the plan will be vital to the success of the neighbourhood plan preparation. The views and ideas of residents have informed the development of the neighbourhood plan and ensure policies cover the issues that are most important to the community.

How is the plan being prepared?

The Parish Council is working with a group of residents to develop the plan and has engaged the services of consultants, Urban Vision, to provide advice and support on policy and planning matters. The first meeting of the group set out the vision that will be at the heart of the neighbourhood plan and inform the direction and policies.

Stafford BC, Local Plan Review

Following the Stafford Borough Council’s Cabinet decision on 6 March 2025, work has stopped on their Local Plan 2020-2040 and a New Local Plan 2025 to 2045 was started through the new plan-making process. They are currently preparing the  evidence base in the context of the National Planning Policy Framework published on 12 December 2024.

One consequence of the Borough Council’s decision is that it can no longer rely on the 2014 Plan for Stafford, and increasingly planning decisions will be made relying solely on the National Planning Policy Framework.

These factors have heightened the importance of the parish council completing the work on the Neighbourhood Plan and setting an ambitious timetable to do so.

Policy map (New Tab) in which you can switch layers on and off using the layer control tool on the map.

https://shared.xmap.cloud?map=7437aa5f-26fb-4836-b447-a541c60abcff