Godstone Parish Council

Consultations and changes to the Plan

This Plan was consulted upon at Regulation 14 by the Parish Council from 16 December 2024 to 10 February 2025.

There were three Regulation 16 Consultation periods for this plan which is unusual and explained here.

An initial Regulation 16 Consultation (No1) was planned to run from 12 November 2025 to 4 January 2026. A decision was made to restart the consultation when it was recognised there had been errors sending out the consultation letter – it had not gone to everyone.  Also, it was recognised that some of the comments made on the Regulation 14 Plan had not been considered by the Parish Council. (These had been received when the Parish was between clerks and not attributed to the Neighbourhood Plan). The consultation was not formally closed or halted so comments received have been forwarded to the examiner. The Parish Council was given a chance to make amendments.

A second Regulation 16 (No2) consultation was held from 11 February 2026 to 25 March 2026.

On the last day of this consultation period (25 March 2026) changes were made to the legislation regarding Neighbourhood Plans.  The Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023 proposed changes in two areas - the content of Neighbourhood Plans (98) and the Basic Conditions (99). These changes were brought into effect by The Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023 (Commencement No. 11 and Saving and Transitional Provisions) Regulations 2026.

Because these changes were introduced so late in the consultation period, the consultation was reopened from 11 May 2026 to 25 May 2026 (No3) (after the pre-election period) so that anyone impacted by the changes had a chance to make comments on the changes or their implications. This seemed the fairest approach and was one we understood other councils were taking in the absence of any transitionary arrangements for plans in this situation.

Godstone Parish Council was asked to update its documentation to address the new legislation before this consultation. The Parish council provided this Addendum to the Basic Conditions Statement.

These changes and approach were discussed briefly with the examiner. Likewise there was brief discussion as to the appropriateness of changes and how the new legislation should best be addressed. Please click here to view the Godstone Neighbourhood Plan Submission (V2): Godstone Parish Neighbourhood Plan Submission Version 

 

 

• Appendix A – Godstone Design Guidance and Codes

 

 

 

 

A summary of all comments will be made publicly available following the consultation, and each will be carefully reviewed by the Neighbourhood Plan Working Group. The draft Neighbourhood Plan will be amended accordingly into its Submission Version, which will be formally submitted to Tandridge District Council, who will undertake a further round of consultation. After this, the Plan will be independently examined and, if successful, will proceed to a local referendum.

 

Please note that personal information provided in your responses will be confidential and processed in line with the Data Protection Act 1998 and the General Data Protection Regulations. The Parish Council will process your details in relation to the preparation of this Neighbourhood Plan document only. As part of the Consultation and in line with the new General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR), when responding to the consultation, please confirm that you are happy for the Parish Council to pass on your contact details (name, address/email address) to Tandridge District Council so that they can contact you at the next Submission Version (Regulation 16) stage of consultation.