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Wednesday
24  April

Town's 'Place Plan' will help support its future

 
06/02/2021 @ 08:11
A 'Place Plan' has been published that will help support the development of projects and inward investment in Newtown by local organisations and authorities.

Developed by the town council, the Newtown Place Plan has taken a year to compile, with more than 7,000 comments from local people, including 48 organisations, groups, schools and others.

The plan sets out the needs of the town, as well as identifying its strengths and weaknesses.

It is available for comment as part of a consultation that ends on 9 March. It will then be available for wider use.

Cllr Richard Edwards, who is the the project lead, said: “A lesson from history shows that we have always been good at reinventing Newtown, be it with the first Newtown established in 13th Century, the coming of the canal and flannel and textile industry, the regeneration starting in the 1970s, and more recently with the new by-pass.

"Now it is necessary to do so again, looking to the trends of the 21st century. With this Plan we have built up policies, projects and an evidence base that can be used by local government, private businesses, organisations and individuals to plan projects and seek inward investment for Newtown.

"Of course it won’t solve every problem, but it does suggest a way forward helping us to create a town where people want to live, work and visit."

The plan allows groups, local authorities and others to use its evidence to develop and support projects, including possible funding and inward investment.

Local people gave their views on topics including community facilities, vacant buildings, health and wellbeing, housing and climate change.

Work on the plan paused last year while officers supported the Covid-19 response. A draft of the Place Plan is now available to see.

Key sections of the plan include: 

Planning Policies - when adopted by Powys County Council (as Supplementary Planning Guidance), these policies will help the town’s wishes to be taken into account, when planning applications are assessed for the Newtown & Llanllwchaiarn area.

Projects and Actions - a large number of identified tasks, that several organisations in the town aim to deliver over the next 15 years

“Supporting Evidence Library” - the plan acknowledges the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and the intention is for the collected evidence, to be used by local organisations in their funding applications, to help attract much needed investment into the town.

The “Supporting Evidence Library” is publicly available online and has already been used in 2 successful funding bids for significant town centre projects.

Place Plans were recently introduced by Welsh Government, as a way of encouraging greater community engagement in local planning decision making. The Newtown & Llanllwchaiarn Place Plan will be the first one of its kind in the Powys planning authority area.

The public consultation on the Newtown and Llanllwchaiarn Place Plan is hosted by Powys County Council until 5pm, Tuesday 9th March, and can be viewed at the following address: https://bit.ly/36LqzCc 

The Place Plan work is led by Newtown & Llanllwchaiarn Town Council and is supported by Powys County Council Planning Policy and Regeneration Departments; Planning Aid Wales and Place Studio.