What are you opinions on the sites put forward for development on the map below?
Please help us by filling in the questionnaire below:
"A self-sustaining, harmonious, vibrant village — safe, friendly, and thriving for residents, while protecting our green spaces, beautiful countryside and rich heritage for future generations."
Trawden Forest Neighbourhood Plan Review 2026 - 2041
What is a Neighbourhood Plan?
Picture your whole village like a big playground where the government says: “We need LOADS more houses RIGHT NOW for all the new families who want to live here – like adding a whole bunch of extra slides and swings super fast, or there’ll be trouble!”
The government creates a big map (called the Local Plan) that says roughly how many houses your area needs. But here's the best part: Neighbourhood plans let YOU and your neighbours make your OWN rules map. You can pick exactly where those new houses go, so it's not someone far-away deciding to plop them on your favourite grassy hills or fields.
Opportunity sites are the super-smart, ready-to-go spots YOU choose first on your map – mostly for building those new houses the government wants!
These are usually the not-so-attractive, already-used-up places nobody wants anymore, like:
Old empty shops or offices that closed
Scruffy car parks with cracked concrete and weeds
Tired old factories or bumpy yards that look messy
They're called "opportunity" sites because they're a great chance to fix them up! Turn the ugly bits into nice new homes with gardens, maybe a little playground or shops too. That way, you get the houses everyone needs without touching the beautiful green spaces, rolling hills, woods, or wild fields where kids run around and animals live.
Your neighbours sit down, look around, and say: “Let's put most of the new houses HERE on these opportunity sites first – clean them up and keep our lovely green bits safe and green forever!”
This calms the angry residents waving pitchforks because:
It's not strangers forcing giant housing estates on your best picnic spots or nature places.
YOU picked the spots yourselves – starting with the boring, brownfield ones that need love anyway.
It shows you're helping solve the housing problem the fair way: more homes for people who need them, but protecting the green spaces and hills everyone loves.
Your neighbourhood plan makes it official – so builders have to follow YOUR choices first!
Everyone wins: new friends move in, the village grows a bit, but it still feels like YOUR happy playground with green grass, trees, and hills. No pitchforks needed – just a common sense approach to a problem. 🏡🌳😄
01
Frequently Asked Questions
We already have a Neighbourhood Plan for Trawden Forest – why do we need a new one?
Our current plan was written quite a few years ago. Since then, national planning policy has changed and some of our policies need updating to be useful. There are also topics we would like to include that aren’t in the current one.
02
Are there things the neighbourhood plan cannot do?
Some issues fall outside our scope, such as health provision, education, and strategic transport issues. That’s because other organisations are responsible for planning for these. But we can do our best to influence them
03
Does this mean that we will have more housing here?
The government require all areas across the country to deliver housing. Here, Pendle Borough Council have recently adopted a new Local Plan, which covers the whole district.
Our neighbourhood plan cannot ‘stop’ development taking place, but it can influence what it looks like and where it is located. We can also protect areas that are special to us, such as green spaces, local views, historic buildings and so forth.
The Neighbourhood Plan can set out our priorities for the area, which in turn can help to attract funding to deliver new facilities and other infrastructure.
04
How does the Trawden Forest Neighbourhood Plan differ from the Pendle Local Plan?
The Local Plan covers the whole district while our plan is just for Trawden parish. Our policies will add additional detail to the Local Plan ones, to make them more tailored to our particular circumstances.
A new Local Plan is being developed for Pendle, and we will need to keep a close eye on what that says and how it impacts our area. It’s like to allocate more homes and we need to influence that.
05
Can we use the plan to stop further housing development in our parish?
No, neighbourhood planning is not about stopping development, rather shaping it. Where housing is allocated, for instance, within the recently adopted new Pendle Local Plan, the neighbourhood plan could not be used to stop that. But we can use it to plan how that housing might look, where it should and what supporting infrastructure is needed.
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How long will it take to write the plan?
We hope to have a draft of the plan to share by October. We will then consult local people on it to make sure the community is happy with it. It will be ‘examined’ to check that it meets legal requirements, and ultimately there will be a local referendum to decide if the community want to adopt it.
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Who is responsible for preparing the neighbourhood plan?
The Parish Council is the official lead body; however, it is vital that the plan is prepared with the community. We have a Steering Group comprising local councillors and volunteers.
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What sort of issues could the neighbourhood plan include?
The plan is first and foremost a planning policy document. It will include topics that are important to us and where we want to have more influence over. The value of the neighbourhood plan will be to add extra local detail so that we can influence development taking place here as much as possible. Based on the feedback so far, our Neighbourhood Plan will likely include policies to do the following:
Setting out our housing needs – setting out the sorts of homes needed here in terms of their size, whether they are to buy or to rent and how affordable they are.
Making sure development is in keeping with local character and is sustainably designed – we are preparing an updated Design Code for the parish, which will set out how development should look for each designated Character area. This means that developments will contribute positively to the look and feel of each area. We are also including a policy to encourage people to develop sustainably to help mitigate the impacts of climate change.
Safeguarding the environment – We can identify and map out the important habitats and wildlife corridors here that should be protected and where possible enhanced. We will also protect special green spaces in the community from inappropriate development.
Community facilities – we can identify where additional/expanded local facilities might be needed.
Getting around the area – we have limited influence on strategic transport like roads and traffic (that is responsibility of Lancashire County Council). But we can promote more walking and cycling opportunities.