The area coveredby the localplan includes the Beddington Farmlands, which is a constant source of dispute between locals and Viridor, the incinerator operators

Sutton Council is running a community referendum this month on The Hackbridge and Beddington Corner Neighbourhood Development Group (pause for breath…) neighbourhood plan.

The Hackbridge and Beddington Corner Neighbourhood Development Group (pause for breath…) was set up in November 2011 under the Localism Act. The group is made up of volunteers and includes local residents, business and other local interest groups and organisations.

They say, “We have worked hard since 2012 writing our neighbourhood plan for Hackbridge and Beddington Corner (in between responding to many planning applications).

“We have consulted on our neighbourhood plan at various stages over the years and have listened to your comments and made amendments.  Now our plan is ready to be voted on by our local community, who get the final say on whether it should be approved.”

There is already a London Plan, and a Sutton local plan. This document would sit under both of those, and contains policies on housing, the built environment, local economy, environment, energy, waste, water, movement and community infrastructure within the Hackbridge and Beddington area.

The plan aims to develop Hackbridge as the hub of the Wandle Valley Regional Park, developing visitor facilities for the Beddington Farmlands Nature Reserve, creating green corridors and a nature friendly neighbourhood with new foot and cycle paths and creating new jobs and major new opportunities for the local area.

Like the European referendum, a simple majority is required to decide the plan’s fate. If more than 50 per cent of those voting in the local referendum vote “yes”, the neighbourhood plan will become part of Sutton’s statutory development plan and will be used alongside the Sutton Council’s own planning documents and the Mayor’s London Plan in determining planning applications in our neighbourhood boundary. If the majority vote “no”, then the the plan does not get adopted.

You can read the plan in pdf format here.

“If you live in the Hackbridge Neighbourhood Area please come out and vote on November 29 in support of the plan,” the NDG says.