Village Design Statement

Introduction

Many villages have Design Statements and now we have one too. It's a document expressing the wishes of its inhabitants on planning policy. Once approved by the local planning authority, Horsham District Council in Nutbourne's case, it must be taken into consideration when planning applications are being evaluated.

Ours was put together by a small team of volunteers from early 2005. The VDS was approved in November 2006 and finally completed in May 2007.

Questionnaires were circulated around every dwelling in the Nutbourne ward; there was helpful comment from Pulborough Parish Council and considerable support from Horsham District Council who also paid for the printing. Here's a time line of events together with archival information.

March 2005 Questionnaire (43kB) issued to all dwellings in the ward.
May 2005 Analysis and summary completed and presented to Horsham District Council.
June 2005 Horsham District Council agreed the analysis and summary.
June 2005 Results (100kB) and Summary (16kB) published here. The summary is also available as a webpage
July 2006 Following comments from several villagers and Pulborough Parish Council (and a grammar check) a new draught was prepared. Download (1.5MB)
November 2006 The final version was approved by Horsham District council's cabinet to form part of the District's planning guidance.
May 2007 Printed copies of the final version became available and were distributed around the village and elsewhere. Download (5MB)