Welcome to the DDNP!

STOP PRESS

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July 2022: The final draft of the DDNP has now been submitted to South Norfolk Council and will be considered by the Cabinet in late September. If accepted it will progress to its Regulation 16 consultation before moving on to independent examination. 

Here's where you can find out more about what's involved in pulling together a Neighbourhood Plan, and why Diss Town Council and six of its neighbouring parish councils are working together with local communities to shape development in the years to come and to deliver the vision for the DDNP:

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'A vibrant community around a thriving market town'

The Neighbourhood Plan is being developed by local people working together to improve the quality of life for the people who live, work and visit Diss and surrounding villages.

Your local councils have agreed to support and work with you to decide what is important for our communities.

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It’s not just about housing, it’s about everything else that goes with it – including employment, leisure, health, education, roads, transport and other infrastructure.

Why are the Parishes working together?

The smaller parishes would like to have a say about where and how development happens in their areas, but felt they couldn’t each develop a Neighbourhood Plan on their own.

The villages look to Diss for most of their services, shops and traders and for employment and public transport. Diss in turn can only thrive with the support of those living in the surrounding area. By working together, the local community can create a plan for the whole area that will benefit all of us.

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What is involved?

By having in-depth conversations with our local communities, we can provide evidence about the current issues and identify opportunities for future development, helping to improve the quality of life for all those who live, work and visit. By using this information and as much other relevant evidence that we can gather, we can develop policies with which all future planning applications will have to comply once the Plan is complete.

There is a statutory procedure that we must follow; the final stage is a referendum where all the electors in the Neighbourhood Plan Area will have the opportunity to vote on the Plan. To be formally adopted, over 50% of the votes must be in favour. 

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Comprising seven parishes and spanning two local authority areas, the DDNP is one of the most complex plans undertaken in the UK. 

Regular meetings have been taking place since the project started, and we've been meeting online since March 2020. You can read the minutes of all our meetings here

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The site is easy to navigate, just click on the menu running along the top of the page for general updates, or hover to see different pages in that section.  The 'NEWS' section is a good place to start as it links into other pages on the site. You can also get to the results of the two consultations from this part of the site. 

If you are interested in a specific parish, then click in the green bar just above to read what's been happening. 

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The Plan is being developed by a steering group of representatives from each of the seven parishes. We meet monthly, online for the last year or so, and have been working hard with the help of local volunteers to pull together one of the most complex neighbourhood plans undertaken in the UK. 

Work started several years ago, and 2022 was a year of great progress for the Plan.  Thanks again for visiting - we update this site regularly and if you have a question, please use the contact button top right to get in touch with the project officer.

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DDNP Steering Group

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