Future development in Carnforth and Crag Bank will be shaped by a Neighbourhood Plan after Lancaster City Council formally made it part of the Local Development Plan.
The resolution to ‘make’ the Carnforth Neighbourhood Plan was taken by Lancaster City Council on 15th March 2023. The decision will enable Lancaster City Council to use the plan to determine planning applications in Carnforth.
The Neighbourhood Plan has been produced by a Carnforth Town Council, through a designated working group, in partnership with the people of Carnforth. It includes planning policies that will guide and shape the future of the town and meet the needs and aspirations of residents and businesses within the Town Council’s boundary.
The Carnforth Neighbourhood Plan seeks to address a range of issues including heritage, the economy, access and movement, housing scale, type and mix, the environment, and the community. The Carnforth Neighbourhood Plan was showcased at the COP26, international climate conference, in October 2021, as one of the first such plans seeking to be carbon neutral by 2031.
Following wide consultation and scrutiny by an Independent Examiner, on 26th January 2023, Carnforth residents voted in favour of Lancaster City Council using the Carnforth Neighbourhood Plan to help them decide planning applications.
Chairman of the Carnforth Neighbourhood Plan Working Group, Councillor Malcolm Watkins said:
‘We are immensely proud of our Town and our Neighbourhood Plan provides the means for a new approach to its development providing our community with greater control over its future.
The Carnforth Neighbourhood Plan has been prepared during a time of unprecedented, extraordinary and rapid change, locally and globally that has led to new ways of thinking about our homes, working and leisure environments, and has highlighted the importance of our town and surrounding area to the wider district.
I am grateful to Carnforth Town Council, our consultants, Troy Planning & Design, Lancaster City Council and all those who live and work in the town who have played their part in helping to shape the long-term future of our beloved town.
Carnforth Town Council will now set about implementing an action plan and monitoring delivery of the Plan’s policies and aspirations for the next decade and beyond’.
For more information on the Neighbourhood Planning process contact Lancaster City Council’s Planning Policy team on 01524 582383 or email planningpolicy@lancaster.gov.uk
Carnforth Neighbourhood Plan Submission
Carnforth Housng Needs Assessment
Carnforth Design Standards and Practices for Walking and Cycling