Weymouth Neighbourhood Plan – What Has Happened so Far
Submission & Examination Process
On 20th July Weymouth Town Council formally submitted their comprehensive response to the Examiner’s Questions, along with all supporting documentation, to the independent examiner, Andrew Mea. A complete list of the submitted documents is provided below:
Following this, several additional (unsolicited) submissions were made by other parties. The examiner accepted these but noted that most comments reiterated points already raised during the statutory Regulation 16 consultation. These can be found on the Dorset Council website: Weymouth Neighbourhood Plan – Dorset Council.
Cllr David Northam, Chair of the Weymouth Neighbourhood Plan Steering Group also responded, his response is below.
The draft Neighbourhood Plan document was endorsed at a meeting of our Full Council on Wednesday 20th November. It was submitted to Dorset Council for Stage 3 of the process on December 6th last year. Corrections were made and the final amendments were sent to Dorset Council on January 15th 2025.
Dorset Council held a Regulation 18 Consultation between 24th January and 10th April inviting residents, groups, business and the statutory authorities to formally comment on the Weymouth Neighbourhood. Follow this link Weymouth Neighbourhood Plan – Dorset Council to the Dorset Council web page which provides the primary documents for the Neighbourhood Plan consultation and respond in the manner indicated.
From Monday 3rd February, Royal Mail had delivered a leaflet produced by the Neighbourhood Plan Steering Group advertising this consultation and summarising the Weymouth Neighbourhood Plan.
Now that Dorset Council’s consultation has ended, the Weymouth Neighbourhood Plan and the responses to the consultation will be submitted for independent examination. The examiners comments will be incorporated and Dorset Council will hold a referendum where people on the electoral register for Weymouth will be able to have a further say on the plan.
Submission Documents
The submission will comprise of the following mandatory documents:-
This is the version which was updated and sent to Dorset Council on 15th January 2025.
Changes have been made to the documents since first released in November 2024, as noted in the Agenda Item to Full Council. These are captured in the Errata below, which records changes made to improve the quality and presentation of the information and to update maps and correct typos and omissions. The only change that affects Policy was by Weymouth Town Council in the debate on the 20th November and modifies the Affordable Housing Policy to refer to the Dorset Council’s Housing Allocation Policy.
The full set of changes from the Pre-Submission Draft is captured under the Reg 14 Consultation Heading.