On 19 January 2023, Uppingham Neighbourhood Forum held its first meeting of 2023 to discuss the neighbourhood plan.

Forum chairperson Janet Thompson welcomed a packed room at The Falcon Hotel as more than 80 locals listened to information on the latest version of the Uppingham Neighbourhood Plan presented by Ron Simpson, Neighbourhood Plan Champion.

This comes as the plans are being adopted across the county. Read about the latest plan referendum here.

Mr Simpson explained: "The refreshed version of the Uppingham Neighbourhood Plan, with an accompanying questionnaire, is a consultation document that the Town Council has delivered to every house in Uppingham for them to consider by 17 February 2023.

"The town council and the Neighbourhood Plan Advisory Group place enormous emphasis on getting the community involved in this critical review of our neighbourhood plan, and we also want to ensure people are able to comment on the draft plan in a consistent and measurable way, so that equal weight can be given to all comments received.

"Subject to the legal constraints on what can and cannot be included in neighbourhood plans, we will use your comments and those received from external organisations such as Historic England, Rutland County Council, businesses, landowners and developers to create the 'submission version' of the neighbourhood plan. This will then be placed with Rutland County Council for a final consultation and an independent external examination.

"After this (with any recommended amendments) it will be put to a local referendum. If it is still supported by you it will become an influential formal planning document helping us to get the best sort of development we can for Uppingham.

"What we need to know what you think about the neighbourhood plan vision, the nine neighbourhood plan objectives, and the 36 planning policies in it."

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Ron Simpson

Mr Simpson went on to answer a series of questions from the audience such as whether the proposed north/south bypass would be built? Whether land to the north was being acquired by Aldi? What guarantees were there that Uppingham would not become a 'rat-run' for vehicles trying to avoid the A606? And what would happen if the majority of people in Uppingham disagreed with the Neighbourhood Plan?

Mr Simpson pointed out that the plan had been approved by Uppingham Town Council as long ago as 2016, and that more than £1million has already been spent on getting it to this stage. If locals rejected it, that money would be lost.

Most people in the audience appeared to agree that the process was a necessary one in order to ensure the development of the town up to 2036.

Other information at the Uppingham Neighbourhood Forum included the Rutland County Council budget 2023/24 consultation process presented by leader of the council, Cllr Lucy Stephenson and Cllr Karen Payne, finance portfolio holder, a health and wellbeing update from Uppingham Surgery presented by John Leslie, chairperson of the Uppingham Patient Participation Group, and a crime and policing update presented by Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland Police and Crime Commissioner, Rupert Matthews.