On December 2nd, and following some 4 years of development and consultation, including a full public hearing, our Neighbourhood Development Plan (NDP) was finally signed off at Tunbridge Wells Cabinet.  Tunbridge Wells Borough Council have issued a formal announcement of the referendum on our NDP; click here for the ‘“Benenden Neighbourhood Development Plan – Information Statement”‘.  The vote itself will take place on February 3rd 2022.

We asked the team at TWBC how the referendum will work:

• The deadline for voter registration is midnight on 18 January 2022.  The formal Notice of Referendum from TWBC (at link 3 below) explains key dates and details if you need to register to vote, or to vote by post or by proxy.
• The deadline for new postal votes or changes to existing postal votes is 5pm on 19 Jan. The first issue of postal votes will go out on 20 January 2022.
• Poll cards are due to go out at the end of this week (week commencing 3rd Jan) so should start arriving around 10 Jan.
• Polling stations will be Benenden Village Hall and Iden Green Pavilion. Those addresses located within Ashford/Biddenden Parish will have their own polling station at Biddenden Clubhouse, Tenterden Road, Biddenden, TN27 8BB.

And more information about the referendum can be found at
1 – tunbridgewells.gov.uk/council/voting-and-elections/future-elections
2 – tunbridgewells.gov.uk/council/voting-and-elections/future-elections/benenden-neighbourhood-development-plan
3 – tunbridgewells.gov.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/406965/Notice-of-Referendum-Benenden.pdf

Here is a link to the full and final plan on the TWBC website, which also offers a version in an accessible format.

If you have questions about the NDP then you may want to read some of the articles published in the Parish Magazine (see our News posts).  The Parish Council have also compiled a Question & Answer sheet covering the most common topics that have come up recently.