Examiner's report on first Neighbourhood Plan examination due

Balch's examination of the Plan focussed on housing growth, the balance between housing and jobs and on protecting the environment. It is anticipated that his informal, non-binding, report of examination will be published by 21 May.

"The Examiner's report will be eagerly anticipated not least because it must consider whether the Neighbourhood Plan is in general conformity with the strategic policies contained in the development plan for Teignbridge," said Jamie Lockerbie, a planning expert at Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com.

"It will be interesting to see how the Examiner addresses this condition bearing in mind the departures from the emerging Teignbridge Core Strategy and the additional complication of this document not yet being the development plan for the area by virtue of its emerging status," said Lockerbie.

The revised Dawlish Neighbourhood Plan, which was subject to consultation, included consideration of more that 400 comments received in response to the draft Neighbourhood Plan, which was published in September 2011. 

"All of these comments have been taken into consideration in the preparation of the revised draft Neighbourhood Plan," the Council said. "The hearing session provided an excellent public forum for examining the case for growth at Dawlish over the next 20 years."
The merits of the proposed site allocations in the Neighbourhood Plan and differences with the Teignbridge Core Strategy Preferred Options were explored in the examination meeting.

The available existing infrastructure was also discussed for each site.  

The Examiner's report can  recommend that modifications are made to the Neighbourhood Plan, however, any such recommendations would be non-bindng..

The revised Dawlish Neighbourhood Plan differs on some issues from the policies of the Teignbridge Core Strategy Preferred Options Report that was published and consulted on in January this year.

The Steering Group recommended that one proposed site is not used for housing as suggested in the draft Core Strategy, and that three hectares of employment land is moved to the east 

The Neighbourhood Plan also highlights some additional land that could be used for the development of new homes.