PEOPE in the Matterdale area of the Lake District National Park are being urged to vote on the future of their parish.

A local referendum on the Matterdale Neighbourhood Plan is being held on Thursday, October 15, to set out the planning policies for the area for the next 15 years. This is only the second National Park Neighbourhood Plan to reach the referendum stage – the initial one was in the Norfolk Broads – and is a first for the Lake District National Park.

Local people worked with Tom Woof, head of planning for H&H Land and Property, to draw up the plan for the parish. The process started in 2013 when Matterdale Parish Council submitted an application to designate the parish as a neighbourhood area. Following approval by the Lake District National Park Authority early last year, the plan was put together and has been through a series of consultations before reaching the referendum stage.

The Matterdale plan brings together issues important to sustaining the area while protecting its heritage and environment. It covers the provision of new affordable housing for local people, broadband, support for micro-businesses and sets out how the parish will handle future applications to extend or open new caravan holiday parks.

Mr Woof said: “This is a great opportunity for people in the Matterdale community to have their say on the future development of their area, and I’d urge everyone who is eligible to vote to do so.

“This is a first for both the Lake District National Park and for H&H Land and Property, as the first Neighbourhood Plan we’ve worked on. It was a complex job, because Neighbourhood Plans must conform to national planning guidance and fit in with the Lake District National Park Local Plan.

“We wish the Matterdale community all the best in its future planning ventures.”

Neighbourhood Plans were introduced by the 2011 Localism Act to give communities a greater say in the way their area is developed, focusing on activities that require planning permission.

If the Matterdale plan is approved by a majority in the referendum, it will be formally adopted by the Lake District National Park Authority as part of its overall statutory development plan. That means the opinions of local people, as expressed in the Neighbourhood Plan, will be taken into account in future planning decisions for the area.

In addition to Matterdale, Bootle, Coniston, Millom-Without and Torver parishes in the Lake District National Park are currently going through the process to draw up their own Neighbourhood Plans.