Copdock and Washbrook
Parish Council
Parish Council
Parish Council
This section is devoted to the Copdock and Washbrook Neighbourhood Plan - https://www.babergh.gov.uk/w/copdock-washbrook-neighbourhood-plan
What is neighbourhood planning?
Neighbourhood planning gives communities the ability to develop a shared vision for their neighbourhood and shape the development and growth of their local area. More information about Neighbourhood Plans generally can be found on the Babergh District Council website.
Neighbourhood planning enables communities to play a stronger role in shaping the development of areas in which they live. It provides the opportunity for communities to set out a positive vision for how they want their community to develop over the next 15- 20 years in ways that meet identified local need and make sense for local people.
If a Neighbourhood Plan is adopted by a local community, planning officials at Babergh District Council have a statutory obligation to take its content into account when reviewing any planning applications that come forward from landowners who have offered their sites for development.
Without a Plan, no such obligation exists. Recent trends have shown that more weight is being given by Council Planning Officials to the content of local Plans.
In addition, communities that take a proactive approach by drawing up a Neighbourhood Plan which secures the support of local people in a referendum, will benefit from 25% of the revenues from the Community Infrastructure Levy arising from any development that takes place in their area.
The referendum was held on the 24th July 2025. 241 ballot papers were issued representing a turnout of 23%. Of those, 192 votes were cast in favour of a Yes, representing 80% of votes cast. As a result of this, in an 'Officer Decision’, effective from Tuesday 5 August 2025, Babergh District Council have agreed to adopt ('make) the Copdock & Washbrook NDP.
This NDP, which covers the plan period to 2037, now forms part of the development plan and will be used to help determine planning applications in the parish unless material considerations indicate otherwise.
The proposed Plan differs from the previous Plan in one fundamental aspect. Unlike before, the proposed Plan does not allocate any sites for future development. The Council believes that with circa 50 dwellings already agreed and in the planning “pipeline” at various "infill" locations within the Parish , our housing needs as currently identified are already met. The Parish Council is strongly opposed to large scale developments that would destroy the character of the community and regards the retention of our village identity as its primary and most important objective.
The JLP is BMSDC’s development blueprint for the entire District covering the period up to 2037. It is important because it is this Plan that will set housing allocations and distribution across the District until 2037. In light of the new Government increasing their annual target for new homes from 416 to 775 per annum (an increase of 86%), Babergh District Council has announced that it will carry out a full review of its JLP. Housing requirements will be addressed at District level as part of that review.
A Neighbourhood Plan cannot veto or stop development entirely. That said, they become legally binding once they are approved in a local referendum and formally brought into force by the local planning authority. The Parish Council believes that it is important to have an adopted Neighbourhood Plan in place before Babergh's Joint Local Plan is finalised due to the obligation it will place upon them to take into account the wishes of the local community when deciding the scale and distribution of new housing developments.
More information about BMSDC’s JLP can be found here
For any questions about the C&W Neighbourhood Plan please email Sue Frankis at clerk@copdockandwashbrook.org Councillors are very happy to speak or meet with any residents who would like to discuss this further.
