Hingham Town Council, in preparing this response the GNLP consultation, have gathered public opinion through Councillor attendance at the GNLP Hingham roadshow event on 25th February, corresponded and met with members of the GNLP team, received and discussed correspondence and held a dedicated GNLP public participation session at the Town Council meeting on 03 March 2020.
The GNLP consultation documents have been made available by the Town Council in Hingham Library, and at the February and March Town Council meetings. The site assessment booklet, preferred sites booklet and policy/strategy documents have been discussed extensively by Councillors via email and at the March Town Council meeting. Comments from the public and Councillors, both oral and written were collated and publicly relayed at the March Town Council meeting, at that meeting the Town Council agreed its outline response to the GNLP consultation.

An overriding consensus was that the GNLP consultation was poorly advertised (other than on social media), insufficient notice was given to enable the road show event to be advertised in the Parish Magazine, the road show was not organised in liaison with the Town Council, the GNLP website is not user friendly, with information being difficult to find, and the alternative ways of responding to the GNLP (other than using the website) were not sufficiently advertised. It is felt that the consultation process was not inclusive to all members of the community and was viewed by some residents as "pointless" as they considered that their comments would not be considered as they felt that the preferred sites allocations were a "done deal".

With specific reference to the site assessments, the Town Council consider that there are a number of contradictions within the site assessments and the sites put forward as preferred options for housing development and the decision on some sites to be deemed unsuitable, are extremely flawed.

Hingham Town Council would like to thank the members of the GNLP team who have engaged with the Town Council, listened to and taken on board these comments.


Hingham Town Council has signed the pledge to support the CPRE campaign objecting to any new sites being allocated for house building in revised local plans to 2038 until all existing allocations in current core strategies have been developed.
The Town Council's overriding response to the GNLP is to have a preference for no further development in Hingham, having already had several areas of housing development within the Town over the years, yet with little/insufficient improvement to the infrastructure to support the growth of the Town.

Under the GNLP, Hingham are being asked to accept 100 new homes, on top of the existing commitment of 16 homes and on top of that, an unknown number of new homes through small "windfall" development sites. The Council believe that this growth is not sustainable, without improvement to the existing infrastructure and facilities of the town.
Smaller sized gradual development may be less impactive on the existing infrastructure and facilities.
To be able to build and sustain a "stronger community", development in the Town needs to provide adequate affordable housing for local families, a range of suitable housing for a diverse population, housing in appropriate locations. Supporting infrastructure is required, such as provision of improved footways and pedestrian priority crossing points in key locations within the Town, road safety improvements to the "Fairland crossroads" , increased capacity at the primary school, a purpose built public car park within easy walking distance of the town centre, provision for green travel such as provision of publicly available vehicle charging points, extended green space for sports facilities, provision for an extension to the cemetery.

Hingham Town Council have recently acknowledged the Climate Emergency, any development need to address and mitigate environmental impact, including in terms of sustainability, green issues, pollution, and wildlife habitat.

Hingham Town Council is committed to working to try to secure the best outcomes for the community and to ensure that the infrastructure is adequate to support residents to be able to use local businesses and in turn enable those businesses to thrive.

The GNLP is set to run until 2038, by which time children now at the primary school will be seeking employment, they will need transport, they will need housing that they are able to afford to enable them to remain in a community where they grew up, if they so wish. Children not yet born will need to access both primary and secondary education. The GNLP needs to deliver adequate provision (alongside housing) to sustain both the community as it is today and tomorrow and the community that will be come 2038.