Neighbourhood Plans.

The DaSA expects all neighbourhood plans to have completed regulation 14 by end
August 2017. This is unachievable and the date needs to be considerably extended.

Sedlescombe has the best experience having completed the regulation 14 twice
and has a good understanding of RDC's requirements and timescales. RDC has very
limited resources to service Neighbourhood Plans. It should be noted that a
neighbourhood plan does not carry weight at regulation 14 for planning applications and should not therefore be considered to carry weight in the site assessment process through the DaSA.

It is highly unlikely that a number of parishes will have achieved regulation 14 by September as some have barely commenced their plans. 4 out of the 8 months now available will be taken up with sea scoping and regulation 14 consultation periods leaving just 4 months for the highly complex and detailed work of preparing the draft plan and submission version let alone the call for sites and site assessment work and evidence gathering. The LPA needs to put significant resources into supporting the emerging Neighbourhood plans by funding additional officers through the grants made available by central government to LPA'S for supporting neighbourhood plans to ensure as many as possible meet the LPA'S deadline.