2016/2017 -During November 2016, every house in the village was visited by members of the Neighbourhood Plan Working Group to distribute a survey inviting responses to a range of questions. This was followed by a follow up visit some days later to collect the questionnaires. A total of 289 were issued and 212 were collected, representing a return of 73.3%.

During December 2016, the results were entered into an on-line version of the questionnaire by a small team of volunteers, and this allowed analysis to be carried out.  From this a series of summaries were produced, and these are in the accompanying document - Survey Summary

If anyone wishes to see the original, raw data, please contact one of the NPWG team: Nick Young – Anne Henderson – David Leyland – David Hepper

What happens next?

The team are now working on producing a series of Vision Statements, based on the results of the questionnaire.   These statements describe what we want our village to be like at the end of the plan period. From these, several Objectives and Policies will be written -  these will help to deliver the vision. When these are complete, we will work to write the supporting text, with the aim of completing the Plan.

When the Plan is complete, it will be published on the website, and we then work with the District Council, to make sure that everyone interested may view it and comment.

When this Consultation Period is over, and any revisions made to the Plan, it will be submitted for inspection by an independent examiner. When the examiner approves the plan, the final stage will then be to ask the Parish to approve it by a referendum.

We hope to submit the plan for consultation during the summer.

Our first meeting of the NPWG in 2016 took place at the Church Room on 26th February. It was a small meeting but a lot was achieved. Nick, David and Anne are going to have a meeting with CAS and then we should be in a position to formulate the final questionnaire followed by a public 'Open Day' and from there to the final plan and referendum. Hopefully by the end of 2016 we could have our Neighbourhood Plan. Minutes of the meeting are available on the left.

A meeting of the NPWG was held in St Andrews Church Room on 13th October, Nick, David & Anne reported back from the very interesting networking they had attended and the interesting tips they had learned from other plans. All the working groups reported back on their progress so far and it was agreed that great work had already been done but there was a long way to go. David volunteered to extract relevant section of the local plan - Local Plan Extracts

On 12^th August 2015 Suffolk Coastal District Council approved the neighbourhood area designation application by Bredfield Parish Council.  The application has been approved as submitted and the approved designated neighbourhood area follows the Bredfield parish boundary. A copy of the determination can be read here Determination & Decision Notice

A meeting of the NPWG took place on 17th June in Bredfield Chapel - thank you Hugh Hawes for the use of the chapel. Each of the 5 working groups - Business, Housing, Historic Environment, Roads/Transport and Natural Environment - outlined their aims and their progress so far. It is hoped that each group will have completed their research and be able to submit a final report in October. The NPWG has now applied to SCDC for approval of the Parish Boundary limits to be designated a Neighbourhood Development Area.  SCDC will now publicise this proposal on its website. This publicity/consultation phase will last from 24 June to 22 July 2015.  This is to allow anyone to make representations about the proposal to SCDC which they will have to consider and respond to. On completion of this phase, SCDC will make a decision on whether to approve or reject the proposal.  If they are happy that there are no reasons to refuse, then a Neighbourhood Development Area will be approved and we are formally underway. SCDC Consultation Info The next meeting will be in September in the Bowling Club 

A meeting of the Neighbourhood Plan Working Group (NPWG) was held on 18th March in the Bredfield Castle. The main topics for inclusion in the Neighbourhood Plan (NP) were agreed and each topic was assigned a WG. Sir Nicholas Young (Chair), David Hepper (Secretary) and Anne Henderson (Vice Chair) were agreed as principal members of the NPWG and  Terms of Reference were agreed. Nick, David and Anne are meeting with Charles Barrington from Bealings to discuss their NP and get any help and advice we can from him. Anne will send a report to the Bredfield Parish Council asking them to formally adopt the NP and to apply to SCDC for permission to formally begin. Application Letter & Map It was decided that we will try to have meetings in different available spaces in the village. The next meeting of NPWG will be in late April, date and place TBC.

On 23rd February a public meeting was held in Bredfield Village Hall, with 24 members of the public present. It was agreed that we would like to proceed with a Neighbourhood Plan for Bredfield and some discussion took place on what we would like to include in the plan. A meeting of the steering group was agreed for Wednesday 18th March Next meeting 

In 2014, there was a public meeting, followed by a number of steering committee meetings to discuss the possibility of producing a Neighbourhood Plan in conjuction with Boulge and Debach, but as a result of discussion with Suffolk Coastal, Debach and Boulge realised that they did not need to have a Neighbourhood Plan and they pulled out. On 12th January 2015 a small steering group met at St Andrew's Church Room and agreed that Bredfield should carry on alone to produce a Neighbourhood Plan for Bredfield.