Stone Neighbourhood Plan Referendum

Stone Neighbourhood Plan

The following pages have been compiled by the Stone Neighbourhood Plan Working Group and A Little Bit of Stone.

Overview: The Stone Neighbourhood Plan shapes the future development of Stone, allowing the local community to take the lead in planning how its own neighbourhood will develop. It gives the opportunity for local people to actively plan where new development should go and designates our green space so they may be safeguarded.

How does it propose to do this?: The plan sets out the vision and aims for Stone, and then details a number of policies that would support the achievement of these.

Who produced the plan?: The plan has been produced by the community, led and brought together by Stone Town Council and supported by an external planning consultant.

Where will the plan be used?: The plan, once adopted, will automatically become law and must be used with legal development documents when Stafford Borough Council makes planning decisions for Stone. It has a legal obligation to consult the policies, visions and aims within the plan and align decisions accordingly.

When/where is the referendum taking place?: The Stone Neighbourhood Plan referendum takes place on Thursday 6th May 2021, the same time and place as local elections in the town. You have a separate voting card for the referendum, so if you’re heading to the polling station you can take it along – although you can still cast your vote without it!

The Important Bit! – How should I vote?

[box type=”info” align=”” class=”” width=””]The question you will be asked on the ballot is: “Do you want Stafford Borough Council to use the Neighbourhood Plan for Stone Town to help it decide planning applications in the neighbourhood area?”

A YES vote says that you want the Stone produced Stone Neighbourhood Plan to be legally adopted so that Stafford Borough Council must adhere to it in planning decisions.

If you don’t wish for the plan to be adopted and therefore leave planning decisions for Stone in the existing Stafford Borough Council planning process then you can vote no.[/box]

What % of the vote is required for the referendum to pass?: Of the votes cast in the referendum, if more than 50% vote YES then the referendum will pass and the Stone Neighbourhood Plan will take effect immediately.

Below we go into a brief breakdown of each section of the neighbourhood plan but if you want to read the full document it’s here – Stone Neighbourhood Plan 2019 – 2031 – click to open (102 page PDF) and you can read more supporting information on the website of Stafford Borough Council – Stone Neighbourhood Plan portal

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The key parts of the Stone Neighbourhood plan are set out in the Vision and Aims for Stone, as well as the policies that underpin them.

Vision

The Vision for Stone as outlined in the Plan is: ‘… Stone will be a thriving market town alongside river and canal, with an attractive and accessible historic centre, a high-quality network of green space, a wide range of leisure and recreational activities, a successful tourism sector, high-quality local services and a diversity of local employment opportunities.’

Aims

To achieve the VISION there are 9 specific aims listed below:

SA1: Improve the economic viability of the High Street and the town centre by encouraging and incentivising new businesses, enabling local businesses to thrive and providing a diverse range of shopping and other services.

SA2: Preserve and enhance the special character of the town, including the heritage assets of Stone by supporting initiatives to repair, refurbish and re-use historic buildings and to improve the quality of the environment.

SA3: Identify and designate important areas of local green space and develop a green infrastructure strategy to protect and improve those areas.

SA4: Support initiatives for the review of the town’s transport and traffic needs, and support relevant actions to address those needs.

SA5: Improve pedestrian and cycle links and accessibility within Stone and to surrounding destinations, particularly the canal and river meadows.

SA6: Protect and improve leisure, cultural and sports facilities and improve community access to those facilities.

SA7: Support initiatives for the enhancement of essential local community facilities, including medical and educational facilities as appropriate, ensuring that they are sustainable and fit for purpose.

SA8: Ensure that new developments in Stone preserve and enhance the town’s historic character and improve the quality of the natural and built environment.

SA9: Ensure that new housing caters for a growing and ageing population, whilst addressing local housing needs.

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Policies

To deliver the vision the neighbourhood plan sets out a number of policies that underpin the 9 aims.

Land Use Policies

In terms of land use, 3 policy areas are outlined:

Housing

The housing requirement for Stone in the current Stafford Borough Local Plan has already been met. The Neighbourhood Plan has companion policies that seek to ensure that local housing needs are addressed and high standards of design are secured.

Policy H1: Housing Tenures and Types

Development proposals for new housing should demonstrate that evidence of current housing requirements within Stone has been identified and addressed appropriately, including housing for the older population wherever feasible, and in particular that a range of affordable housing is provided within the terms of the Plan for Stafford Borough Policy C2.

Policy H2: Housing Design

New development in Stone must deliver high-quality design. Development proposals must, as appropriate, address the following (within the Design and Access Statement where applicable):

  1. Ensure that regard is demonstrated within the combined design of buildings (including their scale and massing), streets and spaces for the Character Area within which the development is located;
  2. Within Character Area North (identified within Appendix B) particular regard is required for the retention of the characteristically large plots. In all areas rear gardens should not normally be placed next to road frontages;
  3. Make provision for electric car charging;
  4. Show innovative use of design solutions where appropriate, especially to achieve high environmental performance.

These 2 housing policies support the following aims:

SA2: Preserve and enhance the special character of the town, including the heritage assets of Stone by supporting initiatives to repair, refurbish and re-use historic buildings and to improve the quality of the environment.

SA4: Support initiatives for the review of the town’s transport and traffic needs, and support relevant actions to address those needs.

SA5: Improve pedestrian and cycle links and accessibility within Stone and to surrounding destinations, particularly the canal and river meadows.

SA9: Ensure that new housing caters for a growing and ageing population, whilst addressing local housing needs.

For further reading of these policies and the evidence to support them please check out the following pages from the plan or see pages 31-33 in the full plan PDF linked at the start:

Business and Employment

Stone is located between two major economic centres: the Potteries conurbation and the County town of Stafford.  It has a diverse business base and the Town Centre will play a vital role in driving the local economy. The Neighbourhood Plan proposes business and employment policies responding to changes in work patterns and reinforcing the role of the Town Centre.

Policy BE1: Small Home Based Business

Employment uses on residential plots where planning consent is required will be supported provided that:

This business and employment policy supports the following aims:

SA1: Improve the economic viability of the High Street and the town centre by encouraging and incentivising new businesses, enabling local businesses to thrive and providing a diverse range of shopping and other services.

SA8: Ensure that new developments in Stone preserve and enhance the town’s historic character and improve the quality of the natural and built environment.

For further reading of these policies and the evidence to support them please check out page below from the plan or see page 34 on the full plan PDF linked at the start:

Community Facilities

Stone is growing and this growth must be supported by the delivery of and access to quality community facilities and open spaces. The Plan proposes policies to support this growth, including local play, sports and recreational facilities, green infrastructure, environmental assets, and community facilities.

Policy CAF1: Local Play, Sports and Recreational Facilities

New residential development should provide open space for use by the community to at least meet the standards set out within Appendix G of the Plan for Stafford Borough (or successor document). The nature and size of open space will relate to the proposed scale of the development. Designated areas for children and young people should contain a range of facilities and an environment that has been designed to provide focused opportunities for outdoor play.

Where residential sites are to be developed incrementally, a masterplan must be prepared in advance to show that the appropriate range of recreational and play facilities is to be achieved overall.

Policy CAF2: Green Infrastructure

Development proposals should protect, conserve and enhance Stone’s natural setting, environment and green infrastructure, including their trees and hedgerows where appropriate. Where appropriate, through the planning application process, Section 106 or CIL contributions may be used to improve access to green spaces and infrastructure to enable development.

Policy CAF3: Protected Views and Vistas
Views and Vistas
Click to expand – Appendix E

Development proposals must, where applicable, assess and address their impact on the special local views and vistas within the built and natural environment of Stone, as shown on the Map at Appendix E.

These are:

Policy CAF4: Local Green Space (LGS)

The areas detailed as LGS in Appendix C of this Plan are designated as Local Green Spaces where development will be managed in a manner consistent with policies for Green Belt.

Policy CAF5: Local Green Infrastructure (LGI)

The areas detailed as LGI in Appendix C of this Plan are designated as Local Green Infrastructure which are to be regarded as part of the green infrastructure network which Policy N4 of the Plan for Stafford Borough protects and commits to enhance and expand, to support health and well-being for local communities.

[box type=”info” align=”alignleft” class=”” width=””]You can see the local green spaces and local green infrastructure locations in Appendix C by clicking here -> Appendix C Pages[/box]

These 5 community facilities policies support the following aims:

SA3: Identify and designate important areas of local green space and develop a green infrastructure strategy to protect and improve those areas.

SA6: Protect and improve leisure, cultural and sports facilities and improve community access to those facilities.

SA7: Support initiatives for the enhancement of essential local community facilities, including medical and educational facilities as appropriate, ensuring that they are sustainable and fit for purpose.

SA8: Ensure that new developments in Stone preserve and enhance the town’s historic character and improve the quality of the natural and built environment.

For further reading of these policies and the evidence to support them please check out the following pages from the plan or see pages 35-37 in the full plan PDF linked at the start:

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The following sections give more background to the plan and Stone links are provided to the relevant sections of the Stone Neighbourhood Plan document:

The Neighbourhood Area

Is defined by the current Stone Parish boundary incorporating voting wards: Stonefield, St Michael’s, Walton North and Walton South.

Click here for more detail on the plan document

The Local Plan

Stone has been allocated 1,000 new homes in the current adopted local plan for Stafford Borough but planning consents have already exceeded this allocation potentially skewing the intent of the Local Plan. The Neighbourhood Plan has a role to ensuring that any future development meets the needs and aspirations of the community.

Click here for more detail on the plan document

Consultation

There has been a wide consultation with members of the community. This included a questionnaire survey sent to all households and businesses and several consultation events attended by several hundred members of the public. The events evidenced that local residents overwhelmingly value Stone as a pleasant place to live and expressed great concern for how Stone should develop in the future.

Click here for more detail on the plan document

Key Outcomes and Issues

Stone has many positive features that make it an attractive place in which to live, most notably its green spaces and shopping and other facilities, its ambience as an historic market town, its wide range of leisure and recreational activities, and its thriving community spirit.

Significant issues reported on were: the need to control the quality and quantity of new development, the loss of independent shops, the range of shops available, the need to maintain and refurbish some historic buildings, the volume of traffic passing through the town and the overstretched local services.

Click here for more detail on the plan document

Stone The Place

This part of the Plan (sections 6-16) provides a commentary on several aspects to life in Stone. Notably: The Place (6), Location (7), Landscape and Setting (8), History and Heritage (9), Demographics (10), Education (11), Business and Employment (12), Community Facilities (13), Culture (14), Traffic and transportation (15), Infrastructure and Environment (16).

Click here for more detail on the plan document

Green Space

A key aspect of what makes Stone a desirable place to live is the balance between green space and the built environment. The Plan designates areas of green space to preserve and where possible enhance thus maintaining all that is special and unique to Stone and providing them legal protection.

Click here for more detail on the plan document

Stone (continued)

This section of the Plan continues its analysis of the town and its facilities and includes sections on: Sport and Recreation (18), Tourism (19), Character Areas (20), Gateway and Views (21), Town Centre and Markets (22), Well-being (23), Movement and legibility (24).

Click here for more detail on the plan document

Community Consultation

During engagement with the local community in preparation of the Plan, when presented with the question ‘What do you like about Stone and what do you think would be preserved and enhanced?’ the highest scoring issues identified were green open spaces, with people identifying key areas including Westbridge Park, Common Plot, Stonefield Park, Walton Common, river walks, allotments, Crown Meadow, Trent Meadow and Nicholls Lane Field.

During the same engagement, when asked ‘What do you think should be changed in Stone and what improvements should be made?’, answers included: an improved leisure centre, a limit on further housing growth, further growth to be accompanied by improved services,  the protection and enhancement of green spaces, and improved facilities for teenagers.

Click here for more detail on the plan document

[box type=”info” align=”alignleft” class=”” width=””]If you’d like to view the plan in physical form, copies are available for viewing during opening hours at the Stone Town Council’s Offices, Stone Library, and the Civic Centre in Stafford.

We also understand that the Stone and Eccleshall Gazette will be running a feature on the plan in their latest edition.[/box]

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