Decision

The Officer introduced the report and stated that Siddington had been collaborating with Cotswold District Council to develop their draft Neighbourhood Plan, including running a Reg14 consultation for input from the public, which CDC also commented on – this had been collated into Annex E, the Response Log, and implemented into the Neighbourhood Plan that was now provided in Annex A for Reg15. The Officer advised that in Section 3 a table had been provided listing the requirements for this submission, including;

• A map of the Neighbourhood Plan, at Annex B, which the Officer noted covered the Siddington Parish area.
• A Consultation Statement which includes all comments received on the draft Neighbourhood Plan, at Annex D, and a Response Log to those comments, available at Annex E as previously mentioned.
• The Neighbourhood Plan itself was provided in Annex A, and was required to list the timeframe in which it applies, which the Officer noted was a shorter period than usual at six years – but clarified that the Cabinet Member was not to judge the full contents of the Plan at this stage, only whether it had been submitted in the appropriate manner to meet requirements. The Officer also noted that the assessment conditions applied to this Neighbourhood Plan were recently introduced as of March 2026.
• Annex F contained the Habitats Regulations Assessment (HRA) & Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) Screening Report, while Annex G provided the response from Historic England on these two items. The Officer noted that the organisation had raised some points that were considered during the development of the Plan, but a more in-depth screening assessment would also be provided during the next stage of submissions. The Officer also suggested any additional background or supporting papers from consultees would be welcome, but none had been submitted to CDC at this time.

The Officer concluded that they felt the submission was complete, appropriate, and suitable for the Cabinet Member to approve the recommendations. The Officer advised that the Reg16 consultation would run for six weeks and the same parties from which comments were requested during the Reg14 consultation would be contacted again for this stage, and although CDC would be running the consultation its Officers would also provide comments directly on the contents. The Officer explained that the time period of 13 July to 23 August would avoid clashing with potential Cotswolds Local Plan consultation periods to avoid confusion of the subject matter. Physical copies of all documents would be made available in Siddington and Cirencester for public inspection.