The Bentley Parish Modified Neighbourhood Plan 2021-2028 was approved by East Hampshire District Council on July 17.

Examiner John Slater recommended 15 wording tweaks which were accepted by the district council in consultation with Bentley Parish Council.

The modified plan forms part of the statutory development plan for the district and will help determine planning applications in Bentley parish.

It has introduced five new policies on community facilities, local employment, traffic impact, green infrastructure and dark skies.

Policies on the spatial plan, development principles, design, local heritage assets, education, local green spaces, and sustainable drainage and wastewater, are modifications of policies in the original 2016 plan. A section on the recreation ground completes the plan.

Parish council chairman John Fuller said: “Bentley’s Neighbourhood Plan allows us to have a say in any future local development by providing a set of land use policies which are specific to our parish.

“These policies, together with East Hampshire District Council’s more general Local Plan policies, form a development plan for Bentley such that we are better able to preserve the distinctive character and environment of our rural community.

“Our original Neighbourhood Plan, made in 2016, was one of the first in East Hampshire, and indeed one of the first in the UK.

“Plans need to evolve to meet new challenges and this revision has given us the opportunity to improve our plan, learning from our own experiences and from other communities that have made plans since.

“It has been a fairly arduous task to complete this revision, given the circumstances of the past few years, and I would like to thank the neighbourhood planning group, and especially their chairman Chris Mace, for bringing the revision together - a sterling effort by all.”