THE DATE for the referendum on the Liss Neighbourhood Development Plan is fast approaching.

The referendum will be held within Liss on Thursday, November 9, and it will give residents the final say on the Liss Neighbourhood Development Plan.

The plan has been through extensive consultation at public forums, exhibitions and online, and now residents are to be asked whether or not to accept the plan as the basis for making planning decisions in Liss.

If the majority agrees, it will become a major part of the approved plan for the village.

The plan finds sites for a minimum of 150 new dwellings by 2028.

It proposes that 40 per cent of those dwellings should be affordable, to meet local housing needs, and it shares the housing between six small sites spread round the village rather than on any large sites.

Sorting out access, design, landscaping and avoiding flooding have been key issues on these sites, each of which has a detailed brief setting out how this can be done.

The plan also provides new green space, protects the existing green space and draws a line around the village to stop development over the next decade spreading into the countryside.

Looking after landscape, biodiversity and the design of developments are also key parts of the plan.

The South Downs National Park Authority agreed on September 14 that the plan can proceed to a referendum and said Liss Parish Council is to be congratulated on progressing the plan to the final stage.

The authority said getting to this stage is the result of considerable hard work by volunteers over the past three years and preparation of the plan has been particularly challenging as the steering group has had to balance the community aspiration to maintain the ‘hidden village’ characteristics of Liss while finding adequate land to meet the housing requirement set by the East Hampshire Joint Core Strategy.

Liss Parish Council chairman Roger Hargreaves said: “We are so grateful to the steering group who have led the work on the plan and the many others in the village who have contributed to getting it so far.

“It is now important that as many people as possible take part in the vote.

“If we do not have our own plan it will be left entirely to the South Downs National Park Authority to decide what is right for Liss.”