A neighbourhood plan for Okehampton and its hamlets, which has been eight years in the making, has failed at the examination stage because of a lack of consultation, writes Alison Stephenson.

West Devon Borough Council agreed with an independent examiner’s recommendation that a referendum shouldn’t be held about the plan because it doesn’t meet the conditions.

The council’s hub committee expressed its disappointment, following years of hard work putting together the neighbourhood plan, which acts as a blueprint for future development and must be taken into consideration for planning decisions.

The project was led by Okehampton Town Council and Okehampton Hamlets Parish Council, with support from West Devon.

Okehampton was seeking to become West Devon’s sixth community with a neighbourhood plan, which has to be supported in a referendum to succeed.

The examiner John Slater said the steering group didn’t actively consult with key stakeholders during a six-week public consultation process, leaving some “significantly disadvantaged”.

It was his opinion that the ‘statement of community consultation’ was “not fit for purpose”.

Whilst this was enough for him to recommend the plan shouldn’t go ahead, he also concluded that many of its policies would need to be deleted as they couldn’t be used to make decisions on planning applications, didn’t meet national policy or wouldn’t deliver sustainable development.

He said it was “with regret” that his overall conclusions were that the plan did not meet all statutory requirements.

But he added that there was no reason why Okehampton should not be able to produce a neighbourhood plan capable of passing the examination stage if it was “prepared in a way that meets the legal requirements and addresses basic conditions”.

Discussions about the plans began in 2015 when it was agreed it would be a joint venture between the two Okehampton councils, with two key concerns: addressing development of greenfield sites and congestion in the town centre.

Neighbourhood planning specialist for the authority Graham Swiss said the councils would have to “pretty much go back to the beginning.

“The examiner has gone over and above to provide advice about each plan and policy to say which ones do not comply with national policy, so it’s not a complete blank sheet of paper, he said.

Cllr Jane Elliot (Green, Chagford) hoped lessons would be learnt so the time and effort was not wasted.

The committee was told that the lack of a neighbourhood plan would deprive Okehampton of more community-focused policies around the design of housing, but it was unlikely to make it more vulnerable to future development proposals as the borough council was not intending to allocate more land for development than that already in its Joint Local Plan.

Okehampton Town Council will be looking at the next steps and whether to continue with a neighbourhood plan.

A steering group meeting in the town is expected to be held this week.

West Devon Borough Council is responsible for organising neighbourhood plan referendums in the borough once it has come to a formal view that they meet the basic conditions.