Copmanthorpe Neighbourhood Plan – Submission Consultation (Regulation16)

Consultation Strategy

1. Purpose of Consultation

This consultation gives local residents, businesses and other interested groups the opportunity to comment on the Copmanthorpe Neighbourhood Plan, before it is formally submitted for Examination.

This proposed strategy is in accordance with relevant national legislation and the Council’s emerging Statement of Community Involvement (2024)[1].

2. Consultation Dates

The consultation will run for 7 weeks from 26 March 2025 until 11.59pm on 14 May 2025.

The Neighbourhood Planning Regulations state that consultation must be no less than 6 weeks. The consultation period has been slightly extended beyond 6 weeks to allow for bank holidays during the period.

3. Consultation Documents

Location for access

All consultation documents will be available online on a dedicated Copmanthorpe Neighbourhood Plan webpage.

A full set of hard copies of all the consultation documents will be made available at West Offices. The documents will be available to view by appointment only with the Strategic Planning Policy team. The documents will also be available to view at York Explore Library and at Copmanthorpe Library.

If the interested party does not have internet access they will need to contact the Strategic Planning Policy Team to discuss and/or arrange a viewing including, where appropriate, access to hard copies. Officers will only seek to provide hard copies on request for those who have no other means of access.

The documents can be viewed on computers at the following locations:

· York Explore;

· Copmanthorpe Library;

· Mobile Library.

A poster will be made available at these locations explaining the consultation process and how the consultation documents can be viewed. A full list of the consultation documents is set out below.

Consultation documents

· Copmanthorpe Neighbourhood Plan Submission Draft January 2025;

· Basic Conditions Statement;

· Consultation Statement;

· Habitat Regulations Assessment (HRA) Screening Report;

· Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) Screening Report

Supporting evidence base

· Evidence base and area designation document January 2025

Equalities Impact Assessment

An Equalities and Human Rights Assessment will be undertaken in accordance with the Council’s protocols. This will be released alongside the submission documents.

4. Consultees

The council has a legal requirement to make information available to interested residents and organisations, as well as a legal duty[2] to notify specified consultation bodies and to ‘bring the proposal to the attention of people who live, work or carry on business in the neighbourhood area’. The specified consultation bodies are identified in Schedule 1 of the Regulations.

Specific Consultees

Specific Consultees include Natural England, Historic England, the Environment Agency and Highways England, neighbouring authorities and parish councils as part of the prescribed consultation bodies. This group of consultees will be sent an email/letter* informing them of the opportunity to comment and details of the web page and where to find more information.

General Consultees

In accordance with the Neighbourhood Planning Regulations notification will be sent by email/letter* to all residents and businesses within Copmanthorpe Parish informing them of the opportunity to comment, details of the web page and where to find more information.

Wider public (see also Publicity)

A targeted social media campaign will be undertaken to reach as many of the wider public in York as possible.

Members

All members will be sent details of the consultation at the start of the consultation period and will be directed to where the consultation documents can be found online.

Internal Consultation

All Directors, Assistant Directors and other relevant officers will be sent details of the consultation and informed where they can view the documents.

* Where interested parties have elected to provide an email address this will be used in preference to their postal address.

5. Targeted Consultation

Accessible Information

Key consultation documents will be made available in accessible formats on request, including large print or another language.

6. Publicity

CYC Press Releases

A Council press release will be issued prior to the start of the consultation publicising the start of the consultation. A notice will be also posted outside West Offices on the formal notices board.

CYC Website

The Copmanthorpe Neighbourhood Plan page will link from the ‘Current Consultations’ section on the Council website homepage. The webpage will:

· give details of the consultation;

· list the consultation documents; and

· set out how to respond by email or post.

Libraries and Explore Centres

Computers are available at local libraries and Explore Centres (where this facility is operational), with all the consultation documents to be viewed online. A poster will be made available at the following libraries explaining the consultation process and how the consultation documents can be viewed:

Twitter/X and Facebook

The council’s corporate social media accounts will be used to publicise the consultation.

7. Method of Response

Representations can be made in writing or by email. Comments can be emailed to neighbourhoodplanning@york.gov.uk with the subject line ‘Copmanthorpe Neighbourhood Plan Consultation’, or posted to:

Strategic Planning Policy Team, West Offices, Station Rise, York, YO1 6GA

Representations can be made throughout the representation period but must be made before 11.59pm on Wednesday 14 May 2025. Late representations cannot be accepted.

8. Processing Responses

· Reponses (paper and electronic) will be logged and ‘original’, ‘copies’ and ‘electronic’ created.

· Reponses must be given reference number

· All responses received will be logged and formatted for the examiner.

· All responses will be processed in accordance with the Neighbourhood Planning Regulations as stipulated for this formal stage of consultation.

9. Privacy Notice

In order to submit a response, the respondent must agree to the privacy policy associated with the consultation. This is currently drafted to ensure compliance with the Data Protection Action 2018 as well as the Neighbourhood Planning Regulations. As part of the process of Neighbourhood Plan preparation the Council needs to make information available for public inspection, which we do by publishing on our website and also making paper copies available on request. We will only make available or publish the information we have to do to meet our legal obligations. This includes:

· The respondent’s ID number (if provided)

· The respondent’s comments/representations

Following the end of the consultation we will provide the examiner with

· a full set of representations made pursuant to Regulation 16; this will include the name, personal contact details and ID reference of the representation.

· a high-level summary of the main issues raised during the consultation, appending a brief summary of all duly made representations.

[1] Approved for public consultation by Executive 14^th March 2024