Can you help define the bright future of Mortimer?
Many residents will remember that the village undertook a Neighbourhood Development Plan (NDP) which was completed in 2017. It largely focused on where the houses that we were required to accommodate under the West Berkshire Local Plan should be built and resulted in the houses now being built behind the Horse & Groom and St. John’s School.
Such plans have a limited shelf life and the Parish Council has agreed that it is now appropriate to initiate a new NDP as West Berkshire is developing its new Local Plan to run through till 2037. This time it may well be that the village is not asked to take a large new development, but there are likely to be many small developments and other pressures which a new NDP could influence. There is however, a lot we can do via an NDP to encourage the village to develop in the way residents want. Local policies that help with climate change and the way development looks are some examples of what the NDP can influence.
The first step is to create a Steering Group; this will be a group of up to 9 people, volunteers from the village, including a few parish councillors, who will work together to ascertain what the village’s priorities are and turn them into corresponding policies that will help steer Mortimer where its residents want it to go.
Can you be one of those volunteers?
We hope to appoint people to the Steering Group on the 29th July. Do send in your details to the Parish Clerk the.clerk@stratfield-mortimer.gov.uk and someone will contact you. If you are even considering it, please talk to Danusia Morsley on 0118 933 2620 or danusia@morsley.me.uk who will be most pleased to give you more details of what will be involved.