Westmorland and Furness Council Cabinet meeting at Penrith Town Hall on Tuesday morning have approved to conduct another public consultation on the long running Penrith Neighbourhood Plan.
Penrith Town Council started the Penrith Neighbourhood plan development after it was granted approval of the neighbourhood plan area by the former Eden District Council Executive in September 2016.
Westmorland and Furness Council are conducting the further public consultation on the Penrith Neighbourhood plan after the council has gone again the Independent Planning inspector who had required a number of policies removed from the plan before it could progress to a public referendum.
Questions were asked on the councils plans for the referendum by a representative of Evolve Penrith who questioned if the council was planning to run a second referendum for the town’s business improvement district levy payers that it said the Neighbourhood Planning (Referendums) (Amendment) Regulations 2013 sets out require separate referendums in defined business zones for neighbourhood plans.
In response to the question Westmorland and Furness Council leader Cllr Jonathan Brook said the council was seeking legal advice on the referendum needs and funding would be approved for the referendum.
Also speaking was Penrith Town Chair and Mayor Cllr Lawson who set out the councils reasons for objecting to the independent planning inspectors requirement for policies to be removed from the town council plan.
The town council started the development of the neighbourhood plan in 2016 and it has reportedly seen costs of approximately £100,000 incurred across three councils to date including legal costs and its wider development.
The referendum is expected to cost over £30,000 to hold and will give the public a change to vote on if the long running plan should be adopted as part of the local planning policy for Penrith.
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