Dear Residents,
Since 2013, Cookham has had an excellent Village Design Statement, created under sponsorship from the Parish Council and the Cookham Society. Sadly, this is advisory, not a binding planning document.
The Localism Act makes it possible for Cookham to create a Neighbourhood Plan for the Parish which will be binding on the Local Planning Authority (the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead). While such a Plan is not permitted to contradict ‘strategic’ decisions in the Borough Local Plan, it can otherwise require planning applicants in the Parish to comply with the specific wishes of the Parish, overlaying the BLP. We thus have an opportunity to give a voice to the residents of Cookham, and to give them a true say in planning in the Parish.
In 2020, therefore, Cookham Parish Council applied to the Royal Borough for the Parish of Cookham to be designated a ‘Neighbourhood Planning Area’. The Royal Borough agreed. The Parish Council then appointed professional advisers and set up a Working Party to create a Neighbourhood Plan. It pushed ahead with this despite the difficulties caused by the Covid–19 pandemic.
The Cookham Society, WildCookham, Save Cookham and (since it was created) Cookham’s Footprint have throughout had seats at the table and fully participated in the work. So has Dr Shez Courtenay–Smith, the former Chairman of the Village Design Statement Working Group and expert on the internationally renowned works of Sir Stanley Spencer, most of which are based on scenes in Cookham.
A dedicated part of the Parish Council website was created to record transparently every step being taken in the process and all the documentation. An advertisement (with a banner on the front page) has appeared in every monthly issue of the Parish Magazine ever since, going to every home in the Parish, drawing attention to events and progress and giving a link to that website.
Early in 2021, every address in the Parish was sent the first consultation leaflet. Banners were put up at strategic points in the Parish. Parish Councillors manned stands at the Cookham Fair and at other events and in other places. Based upon the substantial number of responses, a vision statement was created. Then, for the second time that year, another leaflet was sent to every address in the Parish to obtain views on that statement. It was almost unanimously endorsed.
The Working Party contacted, both initially and once the final draft was ready, some 15 local individuals, institutions and organisations, ranging from the Churches, through the Cricket and Football Clubs and WI to our Borough Councillors and our MP. It also referred the draft specifically to a group of the larger local landowners.
Of course, it also undertook all the statutorily required consultations with organisations such as National Heritage, the Environment Agency and so on. As its Chairman throughout, I reported monthly to the Parish Council on the Working Party’s intentions and progress.
This Neighbourhood Plan is therefore firmly based on the wishes of the people of Cookham. It aims to ensure that any development in Cookham is as the residents of Cookham want it. No–one will find in it 100% of what they seek, but it represents the best consensus those sitting on and with the Working Party, with all its input, and after exhaustive discussions, could achieve.
On behalf of all those who have worked so hard to create it, I commend it to everyone in Cookham.
Bill Perry
Chairman, Cookham Parish Council, 2024 –
Cookham Neighbourhood Plan Working Party 2020 – 2025