Delays still plague progress on the revised Neighbourhood Development Plan (NDP).
The main issue surrounds archaeology, as the county archaeologist requires more excavation on the extended Community Hub site. The geophysical survey that was requested has now been completed and the county archaeologist will decide what additional excavations are required.
Parish councillor Peter Rose, who chairs the NDP Steering Committee, said: “We have been told that the report of these excavations should be completed by the end of the year. Assuming no more significant archaeological findings are made, we should then be able to proceed with the NDP”.
The Parish Council hopes that a public referendum on the NDP can take place next Summer, but this will depend upon the Covid-19 situation.
Why is the same detailed archaeology scrutiny not also being applied to the adjoining Vanderbilt site?
Is their archaeology report now published?
Has the county archaeologist challenged the other site in the same way?
Sue I agree and it is a question we have asked several times. Apparently because van der Bilt got planning permission before our significant archaeological findings were public they are not subject to the same scrutiny as we are. Nevertheless as you are aware they do have to submit an archaeological report as a condition of their planning permission. This should be available on the SODC planning website but I have not checked that it is there.
There is no favoritism at all, both sites especially the hub site are recognised archeological sites and have been for over 150 years. The hub site especially borders a known Anglo Saxon hall site, Kingly residences of which only a handful are known in the country. The LW hall site is linked to the nationally important hall site at Sutton Courtenay by the track which is still extant in the fields behind Saxons Heath. The West Saxon King Cyneglis was one of the first to be converted to Christianity by St Birinus at Dorchester and probably inhabited one of the halls on the hub site. The importance of the hub area was flagged to the Parish Council (and minuted) over 10 years ago when I was Chairman and is just one of the reasons I was opposed to the development of this area. For reasons unbeknown to me the professional advice we had was ignored. So as the archeology is nationally important and parts are due to be destroyed by development the only way to record the information is through excavation -preservation by record.
I can’t find anything on the SODC website so I have written to the case officer asking if the report has been completed. I will post any answer here.