Have your say on design guidance for Ashurst and Colbury
PUBLISHED ON: 23 OCTOBER 2024The New Forest National Park Authority is inviting comments on updated design guidance for the parish of Ashurst and Colbury in the north east of the New Forest.
A Village Design Statement (VDS) is a way for local communities to set out guidelines for the design of any new development in their area and adds local detail to existing planning guidance.
Working with the National Park Authority, the Parish Council has updated the Ashurst and Colbury Village Design Statement for the first time since 2013. This is now going to a six-week public consultation before it’s recommended for approval.
In the years since the existing VDS was adopted, there have been significant changes in both national and local policy and design guidance, including the new National Park Local Plan (2019) and the revised National Park Design Guide (2022).
Ashurst and Colbury Parish Council is keen to ensure its VDS – covering the whole of the parish – continues to carry weight in planning decisions.
The Parish Council has worked with the NPA’s planning policy team and building design and conservation officers on the revisions, aiming for the updated VDS to be adopted by the Authority as a ‘supplementary planning document’.
David Illsley, Policy and Conservation Manager at the New Forest National Park Authority, said: ‘It’s important that design policies are developed with local communities, taking an area’s defining features into account. The revised draft document has been prepared by the Parish Council working alongside the National Park Authority, and this consultation gives others the opportunity to input into the design guidance for the parish before it is formally adopted.’
He added: ‘Identifying what makes Ashurst and Colbury special enables new development to make a positive contribution to the local distinctiveness and character of the parish.’
The document is aimed at local people, prospective residents, property owners, agents and architects. Updates for 2024 include more detail on historic buildings in the parish, as well as sustainable practices such as solar panels, heat pumps, electric vehicle charging points, and sympathetic external lighting.
The public consultation on the draft revised Ashurst and Colbury Village Design Statement runs from Friday 25 October to Friday 6 December 2024.
Liaising with the Parish Council, the NPA will consider all the responses received during the six-week period and make further revisions as necessary before the document is formally adopted in early 2025.
Have your say at newforestnpa.gov.uk/consultations.