Views wanted on Sompting Neighbourhood Plan

Sompting residents are invited to have their say on a new local planning blueprint which will guide development in their area.

As they look to shape the place where they work and live, the community has been working on the neighbourhood plan since 2012.

The document, which must work alongside national policies and the recently adopted Adur Local Plan, is now being made available for public consultation.

The community can give their views on the document from today (February 19) until midnight on April 8, 2018.

Once all comments are in, the plan will be placed under examination and finally put to a referendum prior to adoption. More than 51% of those voting must be in favour for it to be adopted.

The Sompting Neighbourhood Plan covers all of Sompting Parish, which lies within the planning remit of Adur District Council and South Downs National Park Authority. As the planning authority with the largest population of these two, Adur is overseeing the consultation process.

Government guidelines state the plan cannot say it wants less housing than what has been allocated - meaning it cannot oppose the development of land at West Sompting allocated in the Adur Local Plan.

The neighbourhood blueprint can guide the design and type of housing that is created though, along with guiding future provision of community facilities and open space.

Copies of the document are available to read online and at the Harriet Johnson Community Centre in Sompting, Portland House in Worthing, and the Shoreham Centre. Notices have also been posted across the area, including on local notice boards.

For more details and to comment on the plan, visit www.adur-worthing.gov.uk/sompting-neighbourhood-plan