Neighbourhood Plan

Over the last few years, there have been big improvements to Grafton Parish to make it a great place to live. Think of the difference that our Coronation Hall has made to the community, or the hard work put into restoring Wilton Windmill.

Together we are writing a Neighbourhood Plan for Grafton, thinking about changes that we can make together over the next 15 years. The work on Neighbourhood plan will create a kind of central blueprint for our work as a Council – this will lead to individual actions that will follow the usual planning processes.

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Summary of Proposals

Our objectives are shown below. To kick things off, we held a meeting open to all residents where gathered ideas and thoughts, which we called our “Vision Meeting”. This was followed by a Community Survey which gathered thoughts and feedback and on topics highlighted in the vision meeting.

Over the next two years we carried out research into each area, and developed policies focussed around the six objectives shown below. We carried out a call for sites for local landowners and a Strategic Environmental Assessment and a Habitats Regulations Assessment, working with Wiltshire Council.

On September 20th 2024 we held a Community Consultation meeting, where we shared a summary of our proposed approach. Now we are fine-tuning our policies with a survey to members of the parish, together with a number of national and local groups

Topic	Our Objective
(1) Community Resources For a small community, we have a number of resources to feel really proud about. These are the Coronation Hall, Sunflowers Nursery, The Swan Inn, Wilton Windmill, St Nicholas Church. Each has made a real impact on our community.	Our objective is to preserve these Community Assets – we make sure these assets, which are important to the parish, are preserved for enjoyment of the Parish.
(2) Living We think Grafton Parish is a wonderful place to live, however, there may be small changes we should consider. We think that by being proactive in our development plans, we can carefully develop the area, maintaining its character and charm.	Our objective has been to set out our approach as a parish over the next 15 years and to identify two sites for development, from ten sites originally promoted by local landowners. These will be subject to the normal planning approval process run by Wiltshire Council.
(3) Working The impact of COVID-19 has changed the way many of us work, with more of us working from home. Feedback from the Community Survey showed the largest change to working habits in a generation. In the Community Survey there was support to encourage local tourism.	Our objective is to support a bakehouse and café at Wilton Windmill to be used as a resource for the community to support local working as well further encouraging tourism and creating new local jobs.
(4) Getting about Most of us travel by car rather than on public transport or by bicycle. For a rural area, the roads are fast. There are big changes coming to the way we travel, with no new petrol or diesel cars on sale from 2030.	Our objective is to develop an improved network of paths and cycleways. To allow safe travel around and into the parish without a car, and encouraging “active travel”. A scheme called Grafton Green Lanes, a safe cycleway connecting the four villages, linked to the station at Bedwyn. Plus proposals to improve the network of footpaths with the aim of improved connectivity between villages, safety around main roads and removal of ‘dead ends’.
(5) Environment An impressive 25,000 acres of local farmland is part of the Southern Streams Initiative. This commits to enriching the landscape and biodiversity of our environment, whilst enhancing water quality in the rivers, streams, lakes and ponds.	Our objective, is to continue to support the local environment, and through our Dark Skies Policy, that new development should be designed in such a way that light pollution is managed to not to risk loss of dark skies and/or impact to the natural environment.
(6) Household Spending on Energy Energy costs have risen considerably, and with changes to green energy generation, are set to grow further over the next ten years. At a National level the government has plans to improve energy efficiency and reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050. Homes are set to play a big part: heating buildings makes up 40% of the UK’s total energy use.	Our objective is to offer guidance and support for parishioners to improve energy efficiency of homes in the parish: 90% of homes in Grafton Parish fall into energy efficiency categories D, E and F (the worst)

Useful Documents

There are some further documents that you may also find helpful

• The Presentation given at the Community Consultation event on September 20th 2024.
• The Grafton Strategic Environmental Assessment together with the Habitats Regulations Assessment and the HRA Screening determination
• The Housing Site Allocation Report
• The list of national and local groups being consulted as part of the Section 14 consultation

Neighbourhood Planning Group

Wouldn’t it be great if you got to help shape the wonderful place in which you live and make it even better? Well… you do! A group of volunteers from the Parish are working with members of the Grafton Parish Council to form the Neighbourhood Planning group.

Meeting dates for 2025

• Monday June 23rd
• Monday September 1st
• Monday November 3rd
• Monday December 15th

Meetings are held at 7.30pm at Thatched Barn, Manor Farm Wilton. Chairman – Richard Pash

Questions or comments

If you have any questions, or matters to discuss with the steering group or their planning consultant please contact our Parish Clerk Maria Vonsova by email on clerk@graftonparish.com. We welcome new members to the Neighbourhood Planning Group.