The MP for Mid Sussex, Nicholas Soames, has today welcomed the approval of the Cuckfield Neighbourhood Plan by Planning Inspector, Ann Skippers, and has called on the village to support the Plan at referendum. The Neighbourhood Plan is the first to obtain approval in Mid Sussex and was described by the Inspector as an ‘exemplar’ in view of the robustness of the evidence and the extent to which there had been genuine consultation with the community. The Plan will now go to referendum of those resident in Cuckfield and must be approved by them. Recent successful examples of referenda on Neighbourhood Plans elsewhere have shown approval rates in excess of 75-80%.

Nicholas Soames said; “It is a great pleasure to offer my warm congratulations to Cuckfield for producing this excellent Plan. The Plan has set the benchmark for us in Mid Sussex for how it should be done. I would like particularly to commend the way in which there was clear participation with local people.

“There are now over 1,000 communities around the country which are putting such a Plan together. They are a good indication of how important these Plans are in setting out local views as to where housing should go. All of these plans lay out the choices made by local people over future planning and they have the force of law. What they prove is that localism does work and people do have a real say.”

Nicholas Soames added; “My recommendation to the other communities in Mid Sussex producing Neighbourhood Plans is to carry on and complete them as soon as possible. They provide very real protection for local people. Gone are the days when the number of houses to go in an area were decided in Whitehall and dictated to us here. It is now a question of the District Council and local villages like Cuckfield sharing responsibility for different aspects of the job and deciding for themselves how they are going to meet the need for housing.”