| This email is to bring you up to date with what has been happening with BBEST over the last few months. As with everything else, some things have slowed down, but in some ways it has been a busy period for BBEST. Progress through the Neighbourhood Planning process. You’ll remember that Sheffield City Council organised their own consultation on the draft documents in February and March 2020. The next stage of the process is the appointment of an External Examiner to review the documents and processes and decide if the draft Plan meets all requirements. I’m pleased to tell you that an Examiner has been appointed and is currently reviewing the BBEST Plan and hopes to report in July. A period of discussion with the Council will follow. The next stage will be the Referendum of all residents on the adoption of the Plan. Clearly the timing of this will be linked to decisions on the process for this and other elections. Local council elections in March 2020 were postponed until next year and we do not yet have details on how elections will be carried out if social distancing is still required. BBEST has commented on two major developments in the last year. The University’s Social Sciences building is now underway. A second University plan is to demolish the former Psychology building and replace it with a new building. BBEST commissioned professional planning advice and submitted a comprehensive comment on this plan. Monitoring planning applications in the BBEST area – An option for the Autumn – 4 volunteers needed Once the plan is ‘made’ (ie post referendum and adoption by the Council, which we hope may be autumn 2021) BBEST has a role to monitoring the Council’s appropriate use of our policies. Before that it would be helpful to have an idea of the number and type of planning applications, and the way that our policies might be used and affect them. The Officers have begun to trial this idea, but cannot undertake the extra work beyond the summer. If we were to do this it would need a small number of volunteers (say 4), who could, with help, undertake this work, from around September this year to around September next. This would involve monitoring planning applications in the BBEST area and commenting on their impact in relation to BBEST policies. It would be great if we could do this – to find out more about what is involved, get in touch via <info@bbest.org.uk> Steering Group The BBEST Steering Group has met virtually over the lockdown period, most recently on Monday 29 June, and has remained supportive of the BBEST work. We’d like to take this opportunity to thank all the members for their continued support. The next meeting is scheduled for 17 August. |
