The Local Plan review has the potential for the District Council to impose a significant development plan on Darley Dale that will be in force for the next 15 years or so, possibly resulting in the equivalent of the near doubling of houses currently in the built-up area along the A6 in Darley Dale over that time. Once adopted it will leave the Town Council little or no room to object to new applications from developers.
Darley Dale Town Council will endeavour to facilitate several consultation opportunities during the Local Plan review process for residents to get involved and have their say. These consultations will be designed to gather residents’ feedback on subjects that directly apply to the topics the Town Council will use in its formal reply to the Local Plan review.
The Town Council has created a new working group comprising local community group leaders to try and get a wider local audience involved, and urge members of these local community groups to support their group leaders and engage with the review process.
The Town Councils’ objective is to reduce the quota of new houses for Darley Dale in the new local Plan.
The consultations may be surveys, petitions, polls and drop-in open day events.
The Town Council can’t stress strongly enough the need for residents to engage in the review process. It is difficult for the Town Council to argue for services, facilities or protections for residents if the residents don’t feed back what their wishes are or engage in the process.
It isn’t the most exciting of topics, but it’s extremely important for the future of Darley Dale. There is only one opportunity to put across Darley Dale’s views and the adopted Local Plan will be in force for 15 years, so let’s work together to put the best possible case we can in our formal reply.