This policy needs to be strengthened considerably. There is no mention of the development boundaries of villages/towns following the Neighbourhood Plan process. Development of sites which accord to the number of houses required to be included in the housing count i.e.sites of 6 or more, must be limited to those identified in NP areas, failure to do this would make a mockery of the NP system whereby the Government gave local people the chance to state where development should be.
Paragraph 12.9 must be re-written as it would appear to allow for further development above and beyond what has been allocated by allowing developments to proceed on sites that have now been removed from plans, thus removing the 'will of the people' in favour of 'dictated' sites from RDC. Failure to change this paragraph to allow NP villages/towns to choose their own preferred sites, shows that RDC is not fully engaging in the NP process or respecting the view of their residents, and therefore RDC is not compliant with national policy and the NPPF.
Please view the recent planning appeal for Newick which saw a major development allowed in the village which was against the NP. This type of error must not be allowed to happen again.