Wraxall and Failand Neighbourhood Plan

Wraxall and Failand Parish Council has been working with the community to produce a Neighbourhood Plan.

A referendum was held on the plan on Thursday 19 September 2024 and the vote was 95.91% in favour of the neighbourhood plan.

The declaration of results can be found on our Wraxall and Failand Neighbourhood Planning Referendum webpage.

As over 50% of the votes were in favour of the plan, this carries full weight and becomes part of the development plan for North Somerset. 

Alternatively hardcopies are available to view at: 

• Failand Village Hall, Oxhouse Lane, Failand, BS8 3TS
• The Cross Tree Centre, All Saints Church, Bristol Road, Wraxall, BS48 1LB
• Nailsea Library, 6-8 Colliers Walk, Nailsea, BS48 1RH
• Town Hall, Walliscote Grove Road, Weston-super-Mare, BS23 1UJ (at the library reception desk)

The examination into the Wraxall and Failand Neighbourhood Development Plan has concluded following a further round of consultation (as detailed below) and the examiner has now issued her final report, which you can read below:

The examiner has recommended that the plan proceed to Referendum subject to her recommended modifications being made to the plan.

The role of the examiner for the Wraxall and Failand Neighbourhood Plan is to assess the plan based on a number of fixed criteria, known as the basic conditions.

Examiner's findings

Following a high level assessment of the plan and accompanying documents, she concluded that:

• the consultation statement was inadequate - this means the statement submitted did not fully describe (per relevant regulations) the work undertaken at the draft plan Regulation 14 stage

The Parish Council has prepared an addendum to the consultation statement to include the missing consultation details. 

The examiner has also requested:

• that comments should be sought on whether the neighbourhood plan meets the provision of the revised National Planning Policy Framework. This was published in December 2023.

A further formal six-week period of consultation was undertaken from 22 January until 4 March to address both of these issues.

The Wraxall and Failand neighbourhood plan was submitted to North Somerset Council for examination on 9 June 2023. 

A final period of consultation was carried out between 6 October and 17 November. The Plan, supporting documents and responses received to this consultation, will now be passed to an independent examiner. They will then decide if the Plan meets the necessary basic conditions and other legal requirements to become a Neighbourhood Plan. 

If the plan passes these tests then it will go to a referendum within Wraxall and Failand Parish. This is where residents will decide if they want the Plan to be used to help decision making on planning applications in their area.

Wraxall and Failand Parish Council published a draft Neighbourhood Plan for consultation on 5 December 2022.

A neighbourhood area was designated for Wraxall and Failand in August 2021.