Plans to conserve green spaces and protect wildlife corridors could be put to a public vote.

The proposals are contained in the Rottingdean Neighbourhood Plan which is due to be presented to members of Brighton and Hove City Council today.

The neighbourhood plan is intended to enhance and conserve Rottingdean parish and has been signed off by Rottingdean Parish Council.

It identifies two “local gaps” and nine “valued local green spaces” as well as the aim of protecting wildlife corridors.


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Councillor Sue John, who chairs Rottingdean Parish Council, said: “Our parish council steering group worked to put the plan together in response to local consultation at a time when the parish council itself was being consulted on a series of major planning applications aimed at urban fringe sites and the former St Aubyns School and playing field.

“For our village, this is an unprecedented period of growth.

“The planning brief for St Aubyns was produced by Brighton and Hove City Council working in partnership with Rottingdean Parish Council and the former owners of the St Aubyns site, the Cothill Trust, providing in-depth planning guidance for the former school, associated land and its heritage assets.

“The school lies within the conservation area where any development needs to be especially sensitive to its surroundings.

“This plan includes the proposal that the remaining land on the former St Aubyns playing field should be designated local green space, making it an accessible public space.

“We have also identified a number of other sites within the parish which we feel merit the same protection.

“We have tried, wherever possible, to reflect the views and needs of Rottingdean residents and stakeholders within our goals and policies which we trust will frame the basis of development for Rottingdean until the year 2030.”

The parish council submitted the neighbourhood plan in January before a public consultation by Brighton and Hove City Council in February and March.

The plan has since completed an assessment with a neighbourhood plan examiner to ensure that it follows national and local planning policies.

Following the examiner’s report, published in October, a few amendments relating to maps and wording were required.

The plan met the basic conditions for a referendum but, first, Brighton and Hove City Council must publish a “decision statement” before putting the plan to a referendum.

A draft version of the plan has been included in papers going before a special meeting of Brighton and Hove City Council’s Culture, Heritage, Sport, Tourism and Economic Development Committee.

The committee is expected to recommend that the council puts the plan out to a public vote in a referendum.

If more than half of those voting in a referendum backed the plan, it would come into force as part of the set of planning policies against which planning applications are decided.

Once the plan comes into force, it would require 25 per cent of money raised through the community infrastructure levy to be spent within the neighbourhood by the parish council.

The Culture, Heritage, Sport, Tourism and Economic Development Committee is due to meet at Hove Town Hall at 4pm on Friday (8 December).