Your Neighbourhood,
Your Plan

Welcome to your Plan

A Neighbourhood Plan is a new way for local people to influence the planning and development of the area in which they live and work. The Ringwood Neighbourhood Plan is a set of planning policies that would be taken into account as part of any new development in the parish.

The latest version of the Neighbourhood Plan was approved by Ringwood Town Council on 26th July 2023 for submission to the local planning authorities (New Forest District Council and the New Forest National Park Authority). This was subject to a 6 week period of consultation and is now progressing to independent examination. The examiner will review all the comments that have been made and make suggestions for revisions based on their experience and knowledge of planning policies. Following this the final version will be subject to a referendum early in 2024. Should the outcome of the referendum be positive then the policies will guide all future planning applications in the parish and the Town Council will receive a higher percentage of the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) monies that are provided by developers.

Two areas that received multiple responses were the plans for a more Thriving Market Place and the future of the Old Town Hall / Regal Cinema. We would like to provide a bit more detail about these:

1. The concept of creating a more pedestrian friendly area in the Market Place is designed to help the businesses in that area. There is no intention to stop traffic and the provision of parking is being evaluated in conjunction with Hampshire County Council.
   The next step would be to look at a more detailed design for the area and we would encourage interested members of the public to join the team looking at this. We would then need to seek funding to implement any changes.
   We also note the comments raised about moving the Bus Depot as part of any change and will need to look at the feasibility of such a move.
2. The Old Town Hall / Regal Cinema site is a concern to us all. Several years ago there was an attempt to launch a Community scheme to buy the site. At that time the cost was an estimated £2m purchase cost and a further £10m to develop it into a usable space. Unfortunately the Town Council does not have this amount of funding available. We do keep a close eye on the ownership of the site and would welcome an application to develop it.

There were also requests for a simplified version of the plan, whilst the document itself is necessarily technical, there is now a summary document available on the website. This document outlines the vision and the land-use policies. It is these policies that will guide all future planning applications in the parish.

We will keep you informed of progress.

If you would like to know more about what a Neighbourhood Plan is and why it is important to Ringwood then please visit our Frequently Asked Questions Page