Latest Update 23 August 2024 - Referendum to take place in October 2024
With agreement from Soham Town Council, East Cambridgeshire District Council has formally confirmed it will hold a referendum on the Soham and Barway Neighbourhood Plan. It is highly likely to take in place on 10 October 2024, but this will be confirmed shortly. This website will be updated once further details regarding the referendum are available.
Background
Over the past few years, Soham Town Council has been preparing a draft Neighbourhood Plan for its parish area. The Soham parish includes the settlements of Soham and Barway plus surrounding agriculture land. For details on the earlier stages of preparing the Plan, please view the Soham Town Council website (external link).
During April 2024, Soham Town Council formally submitted its draft Neighbourhood Plan to East Cambridgeshire District Council for independent examination and a final round of public consultation. Consultation took place from 23 April 2024 to 3 June 2024.
The draft Plan and accompanying submission documents are also available to download from the document library below. A copy of the draft Soham and Barway Neighbourhood Plan is available for inspection at East Cambridgeshire District Council's customer service centre during normal opening times.
Examination stage
After the consultation stage, the Neighbourhood Plan and other supporting material were considered by an independent Examiner, Andrew Ashcroft MRTPI. On 1 August 2024 he issued his Examiner's Report (PDF, 0.4MB) recommending the plan proceeds to a referendum. On 6 August 2024, the two councils accepted the Examiner's recommendations, and agreed to proceed to a referendum (PDF, 0.2MB).
A referendum version of the plan (PDF, 8MB) is now available, which incorporates all the changes requested by the Examiner.
Next Steps
A referendum is now being set up, which is highly likely to take place on 10 October 2024, subject to formal confirmation of the date. At the referendum, the residents of the parish of Soham (which also includes Barway) will have a chance to vote whether the Neighbourhood Plan should be used to assist planning decision making in the parish. This webpage will be updated once the date of the referendum is confirmed and once further details are available about how to vote.
Requests to be notified of ECDC’s decision under regulation 19 of the Neighbourhood Planning Regulations 2012, which relates to the making of the neighbourhood plan after the examination and referendum has concluded, may be submitted via email to planningpolicy@eastcambs.gov.uk.
Referendum documents
| Number | Document |
|---|---|
| 1. | Soham and Barway Neighbourhood Plan - Referendum Version (PDF, 8MB) This is the plan which residents will be ask to vote on at the referendum in October 2024. |
Submission documents
Notice of consultation
| Number | Document |
|---|---|
| 1. | Notice of Public Consultation on the Soham and Barway Neighbourhood Plan Submission Documents (PDF) |
Examination documents
| Number | Document |
|---|---|
1. | Confirmation by ECDC of valid submitted Soham and Barway Neighbourhood Plan (PDF) |
| 2(a). | Representations Received at Regulation 16 Consultation Stage - Main Report (PDF) This report contains details of all 14 representations received. However, four of the representations were lengthy and are provided as a separate pdf document in the following rows of this table. |
| 2(b). | |
| 2(c). | |
| 2(d). | |
| 2(e) | |
| 3. | |
| 4. | |
| 5. | Soham Town Council Response to the Examiner's Clarification Note (PDF, 0.2MB) |
| 6. | Soham and Barway Neighbourhood Plan Examiner's Report August 2024 (PDF, 0.4MB) |
| 7. |
If you require accessible documents please email planningpolicy@eastcambs.gov.uk