The Parish Council plays an active part in all local planning issues and is responsible for producing and maintaining the Neighbourhood Plan for the Parish. It is probably the area of the Council's role that is best known to the community and which can be of the most importance.

At a meeting of HDC's cabinet on the  26 March 2018 an overwhelming majority voted for our Neighbourhood Plan to be "made" ( i.e. made a legal document). Our Neighbourhood Plan is now therefore a statutory document that has to be used as the basis for local planning decisions. 

Our Neighbourhood Plan (HWNP) has the same legal weight as the recent Local Plan produced by HDC and a copy is available below.

The HDC's Local Plan can be accessed by clicking here

Huntingdon District Council (HDC)l is the Local Planning Authority for our Parish.

HDC advises the Parish Clerk when a relevant planning application is available for comment.

The Parish Council (PC) then reviews the application with respect to the relevant planning policies (National Planning Policy Framework, HDC’s Local Plan, and the Parish Neighbourhood Plan) and in addition takes into account the Conservation Area, the Built-up Area and the views of neighbours.

In order to do this the parish clerk allocates a lead councillor to each application.

That councillor then reviews the application against the relevant planning policies and normally this will include a site visit when they will explain the process to the applicant and invite them (or their agent)  to the Parish Council meeting at which their application will be discussed so that they can answer any queries from Councillors directly.

At the meeting the lead councillor will then describe the application and how it is impacted by planning policies and answer any queries from the other councillors.

The applicant (or agent) will then be asked to answer any queries members may have or make any statement regarding their application.

The Council does not make planning decisions but a proposal will then be made and voted on by the Council to recommend to HDC’s planning department whether to approve or refuse the application.

HDC Planning Dept. (and in some cases  the cabinet) considers the application together with our recommendation and the comments submitted by other statutory bodies (Anglia Water, Environment Agency, Police etc.) and comments from individual residents.

They then make the decision to approve or refuse the application, sometimes with conditions attached.

Pre-Application Advice

Applicants with potentially controversial applications are advised to try and discuss their proposals with an HDC planning officer and are also welcome to discuss it with a member of the Parish Council before submission to HDC.

View an Application

To view the details of an application, first make a note of the reference number or copy it, then:

1.  click on HDC's Planning Public Access Page  and enter/paste the reference number into the search box.
2. (If you do not know the application number then you can enter a single line of the address or postcode and then select from the results.)
3.  You will then see a description of the application. Click on "Documents and Plans", then "view associated documents" to see the results page with a list of associated documents.
4. To view a document click on the left hand column (Planning Reference) and the document will download, if required you can print and or save. 
5. To view another document go back to the "Results" page in your browser header and repeat for the next document.