Hi, {{ firstname }} !

During Tuesday's poorly advertised and attended meeting at the Town Hall to answer questions about the Neighbourhood Plan, various PoG Core Team members made the case very strongly to extend the public consultation period.

Jon Cousins who is chair of both the Neighbourhood Plan Advisory Committee and the Neighbourhood Plan Steering Group did not deny that Glastonbury Town Council is able to chose to extend the consultation closing date to beyond 2 August when we reminded him that the current 6 week period is the statutory minimum.

We furnished Jon with many reasons why the consultation should be extended including:

• This is the first time local people have seen the new policies and the volume is too great to read, enquire into and comment upon in the time given.

• Much of the public consultation is potentially out of date and the Consultation Statement (Appendix 8) is missing.

• Suggestions resulting from more recent public engagement are absent from the Plan e.g. community-run land projects and housing models.

• At least one more, well-publicised, public event should be run at a time suitable for people with young families and/or who work 9-5.

• Low community availability in July due to summer holidays, kids off school, festivals, hot weather.

These and other reasons are given in our petition below.

Please sign the petition as soon as possible if you agree with the need for an extension beyond 2 August (just over a week) to help the Neighbourhood Plan be more community-led and up-to-date.

Time is of the essence, as we have only 8 days left to run of the current consultation period. So please read and hopefully sign now so that we can send the Town Council our initial petition count on Monday, ideally. Let's help them make the right decision. We can update them over the next few days as necessary.

Read the Plan Documentation Now and Prepare Your Comments

We need an answer from the Council as soon as possible so that people know whether they need to do a surface job in order to comment on the draft Plan by 2 August or can take their time to study it properly and ask questions when needed before commenting and/or suggesting modifications.

We would suggest that in any case, you read the Plan information as soon as you are able to and start noting your comments. There is nothing to stop you making more than one submission, so if you have limited time, pick the draft policies that are of most interest to you and comment on them first.

We have been told that the consultants will recommend modifications to the draft plan if advised by statutory bodies and will consider making changes if there is enough weight of public opinion on important matters. So, your voice matters - numbers count.

Please forward this email and/or share the petition link https://form.jotform.com/261957582328368 with family, friends, colleagues, neighbours who live and/or work in Glastonbury. You may want to discuss some of your comments on social media to encourage others to comment on the Plan that will help shape Glastonbury.

Please keep a copy of your comments/submissions so that you can check later that they have at least been included in the Regulation 15 Consultation Statement sent to Somerset County Council. We will request a copy of the Consultation Statement if need be.

You are also welcome to upload a copy of your submission to our Google Drive if you wish (your comments would be visible to others uploading to the folder until we periodically move them to a private folder.) or email us at [email protected]

Glastonbury Neighbourhood Plan

Hopefully, you will have received a copy of the Executive Summary through your letter box, if not, please contact the Council.

This public consultation period currently runs from 22 June to 2 August. This is the primary time that the views of local people on specific policies may be considered before the Plan is sent to Somerset County Council for further consultation.

This Plan, if adopted, will shape the development of Glastonbury until 2040.

There are three documents to review:

Executive Summary 24 pages

The Neighbourhood Plan - 90 pages

Appendices - 123 pages

You can download the documents and read about the consultation here

Glastonbury Town Council have also split the plan into sections for easier consumption on their website here.

The Neighbourhood Plan

The Plan has been in the making since 2016 and has been drafted by external consultants liaising with the committe. Below is a brief summary of what a Neighbourhood Plan is:

A neighbourhood plan is a community-led document used to guide the future development, growth, and use of land in a specific local area. Once officially adopted, it becomes a statutory part of the local planning framework, meaning local authorities must use its policies to decide planning applications. [1, 2, 3]

What it can do

Neighbourhood plans give locals genuine power to shape their own environments. They allow communities to: [1, 2]

• Allocate sites: Decide where new homes, shops, and offices should be built.

• Influence design: Set rules for how new buildings should look and function.

• Protect the environment: Identify and safeguard vital green spaces, heritage sites, or community facilities.

Join the Planning Exploration Group to help comment on the Neighbourhood Plan process and other local planning matters. Please use our Exploration Groups form or email us at [email protected] 

You can read minutes of the Neighbourhood Plan Committee here.

Join Us

Join the lively debate in our private Facebook Group. You may have noticed that you can’t share posts to people outside the group, however, if you go to our public Facebook Page, you will find Share links to posts made by PoG. If you have an article or video you would like shared, please post it also to the Page as well as in the Group. It will appear on the Page after admin approval.

If you haven’t already, please subscribe to our YouTube channel

If you’d like to be more actively involved, we’d love help in these areas.

Are you a community influencer running events or services in Glastonbury, perhaps with a mailing list or social media following? We’d love to hear from you so we can reach all nooks and crannies of Glastonbury life! Please reply to this email.

Thank you for being part of PoG.

Much love and gratitude

PoG Core Group

People of Glastonbury

P.S. If you’ve been forwarded this email by a friend, please subscribe using the button below and remember to confirm your subscription via the email sent to you - check your Spam folder or Gmail Promotions tab if you don’t see it within a minute or two of subscribing and add [email protected] to your Contacts list.