More than 20 neighbourhood plans get 'yes' votes on same day

8 May 2017 by Jamie Carpenter

More than 20 neighbourhood plans received the backing of residents in referendums held alongside last week's local elections, with strong turnout figures reported.

Headington: more than 3,300 local residents backed plan for Oxford neighbourhood in referendum (picture: NelC, Flickr)

The local ballots included a vote in favour of adopting Oxford’s first neighbourhood plan. More than 3,300 residents (85.9 per cent) voted in favour of the neighbourhood plan for Headington, Oxford, on a turnout of 38 per cent. There were 543 votes against the plan.

Elsewhere, more than 6,700 residents voted in favour of a neighbourhood plan for St Anne's on the Sea in Fylde, Lancashire, and more than 11,000 voted in favour of a neighbourhood plan for Farnham in Surrey - one of the largest 'yes' votes recorded to date.

Waverley Borough Council opted to proceed with the referendum on the Farnham plan, despite receiving a judicial review challenge to the plan. Three claimants had issued judicial review proceedings and have applied for an injunction seeking to cancel or postpone the referendum.

Returns from the referendums held last Thursday - including for neighbourhood plans in Newark & Sherwood, Breckland, East Northamptonshire and Stratford-on-Avon - suggest that turnout had been boosted due to the fact that the ballots were held on the same day as local government elections.

An analysis by Planning last year found clear evidence that hold referendums on the same day as other elections boosts turnout, with peaks in turnout coinciding with local elections held in May 2014 and the May 2015 general election.

Neighbourhood plan referendum results, 4 May 2017:

Headington neighbourhood plan, Oxford
Turnout 38%, YES 3,310; NO 543

Thurgaton, Newark & Sherwood
Turnout 46.15%, YES 156; NO 11

Faversham Creek, Swale
Turnout 42.4%; YES 5,418; NO 706

Yaxham, Breckland
Turnout 58.9%, YES 358; NO 31

Sherborne St John Neighbourhood, Basingstoke and Deane
Turnout 58.4%; YES 346; NO 242

Chelveston-cum-Caldecott, East Northants
Turnout 55.1%, YES 225; NO 28

Salford Priors, Stratford-on-Avon
Turnout 39.1%; YES 338; NO 59

Ashton Hayes and Horton-cum-Peel, Cheshire West
Turnout 28.8%; YES 230; NO 16

Odiham and North Warnborough, Hart
Turnout 38.6%; YES 1,477; NO 178

Bledlow cum Saunderton, Wycombe
Turnout 45.4%; YES 682; NO 155

Austrey, North Warwickshire
Turnout TBC; YES 314; NO 41