EAST Hampshire residents are being asked for their views on the final draft of the South Downs National Park Authority (SDNPA) local plan.
It will replace more than 1,000 policies from 12 local authorities, including East Hampshire District Council, with just 96 new ones for the whole national park, from Winchester to Eastbourne.
SDNPA chairman Margaret Paren said: “The South Downs Local Plan puts these nationally important landscapes first – they are the reason the South Downs became a national park and they must sit at the heart of every planning decision we make. But our communities matter too, many of whom have undertaken their own Neighbourhood Plans.
“Some communities need to grow, but this has to be in a way that respects the local environment and the wider national park.
“The plan also sets out the high standards that all proposed development must meet to protect and value nature – both for its own sake and also for the vital services it gives us such as clean water, food and space to breath.”
Comments can be submitted until Tuesday, November 21, and they will all be considered.
Each one will also go to the Planning Inspectorate for their examination of the plan.
An SDNPA spokesman said about 112,000 people live in the national park and they all need affordable homes and places to work.
Putting the landscape first means ensuring that growth is in the right places, the spokesman added.
Petersfield Neighbourhood Plan is included in the document, as are around neighbourhood plans from around 50 other towns and villages; these provide local development management policies and allocate building land.
To read the SDNPA plan and comment, visit the website at: www.southdowns. gov.uk/localplan