Houses in The Square, Brill
PLANNING & housing
Planning Applications
If you live in Brill parish and wish to make changes to your property that may require planning permission, the national Planning Portal is an excellent place to start. Once you have the basics, go to Buckinghamshire Council’s planning pages to proceed with your application. (Please do not lobby the parish council with regards to seeking approval for a planning application; this is not our role.)
Go to this page on the Buckinghamshire Council website to comment on a planning application pertaining to a Brill property: Select ‘current’ and enter ‘Brill’ (or a neighbouring village) for a list of recent planning applications or enter the reference cited on the yellow planning notice displayed near the property. We’re sorry but the Parish Council cannot raise objections on the behalf of individuals; you need to do this yourself using this portal. It’s pretty straightforward - promise!
If you don’t have internet access and wish to view a planning application, please make an appointment with the Clerk.
The role of the parish council
Brill Parish Council exercises its legal right to be informed of all parish planning applications and to comment on these on behalf of the community. The planning authority may not agree with our views but they will take them into account, so long as they fit with local development plans and are based on material considerations. Planning officers value the input of parish councils as their “eyes on the ground”; we have local knowledge that a non-resident may not appreciate. We can make one of the following responses:
No objections
Supports the application (with reasons)
Opposes the application (with reasons)
Material considerations are items pertaining to public interest and include the following:
loss of privacy, loss of light, and impact on the outlook of neighbouring properties (note that ‘outlook’ is different to ‘view’ which is not a material consideration)
implications for traffic generation and car parking, noise and disturbance (of the finished project - not the construction process)
design, appearance and layout - and how these fit with the character of the area
Conservation Area, Neighbourhood Plans, Local Plans (on the assumption that local people had input to the preparation of these documents)
The case officer will take into consideration the impact of other legislation, such as environmental health and building regulations. The question guiding her ultimate decision is generally: “On balance, is it better to have this development or not?” The emphasis nowadays is on development management, rather than development control. There are many complex drivers to the planning process, way above the heads of parish councils, including the place of development in boosting a slowing economy.
The National Association of Local Councils (NALC) organises training for councillors to help us do tackle planning issues competently and fairly. Read NALC’s guidance to parish councillors reviewing planning applications - and see this excellent explainer of rural planning from CPRE, the countryside charity.
Planning breaches
Examples of planning breaches could include building an extension without planning permission, unauthorised change of use of property or land, and protected trees removed or pruned without permission (including ancient hedgerows). Breaches do NOT include neighbour disputes, issues with roads or traffic, or contraventions of building regulations.
Find out more or report a planning breach to the planning enforcement team at Buckinghamshire Council.
Brill Village Conservation Area
The Conservation Area in Brill village was established in July 1980. This document contains a map of the Conservation Area and a brief description of the buildings and features that make the centre of the village worthy of particular protection. The Conservation Area has been reviewed at intervals since its inception, most recently in 2020. There are no current plans to change the boundaries.
Living in a conservation area has implications for the planning process; this page on the Historic England website offers a nice summary of the subject.
The phone box in Brill Square contains a working phone. Try calling 01844 238285 and see who answers! Better still, make a call every so often; a minimum of 52 calls a year protects a BT phone box from closure.
The Square, Brill
Neighbourhood & county-wide plans
Unlike many villages in the area, Brill does not have a Neighbourhood Plan. This is under discussion but current thinking is that since we have no housing allocation in the Aylesbury Vale Local Plan (into which Neighbourhood Plans feed) the preparation of a Brill Neighbourhood Plan is not worth the considerable time, effort, and expense involved. You may like to read this booklet published by NALC and the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) - and, as always, use the contact form below to share your thoughts and ideas.
The Vale of Aylesbury Local Plan for 2013-2033 was adopted by Buckinghamshire Council at a full council meeting on September 15, 2021.
Buckinghamshire Council (which replaced Aylesbury Vale and other area councils in 2020) has to produce a Buckinghamshire Local Plan by 2025. The consultation process is now underway. Bucks.Place is an innovative and exciting way for local people to have their say about what matters to us in our neighbourhoods. The parish council anticipates further involvement in coming months.
(The now-disbanded Aylesbury Vale District Council produced this Brill Fact Pack back in 2011 in support of the anticipated Local Plan. It’s a fascinating read and generally still highly relevant.)
Hand holding mobile phone displaying Bucks.Place website (photo from Bucks Council website)
Bucks.Place
Bucks.Place is an interactive tool to tell Bucks Council what we think about streets, public spaces, buildings, new developments, nature and water. Comments will be used to create design policies for new developments across Buckinghamshire.
Go to bucks.place, zoom into your location on the interactive map, click +tag, and add your comments. Find out more on the buck.place website.
Oxford-Cambridge Arc
Brill Parish Council is maintaining a watching brief on this massive regional development project. We will keep ourselves well informed and will take appropriate action if/when required in collaboration with other communities.
Read the UK government policy paper on the Oxford-Cambridge Arc.
The former No Expressway Group is now campaigning to reduce the “over-inflated housing target” of the Ox-Cam Arc. Find out about their campaign on the Stop the Arc website and read the supporter newsletters.
Map of counties involved in the Arc (from gov.uk website)
Social Housing, Affordable housing & community-led housing
Read about social housing maintained in Brill by Fairhive (previously Vale of Aylesbury Housing), including how to apply in Buckinghamshire - and find out what the current Vale of Aylesbury Plan has to say about affordable housing (p. 180 onwards).
Many people across the Thames Valley do not have access to good quality, secure and affordable housing. Collaborative Housing is an organisation that brings together residents, housing associations, councils and landlords “to collaborate and learn from each other in order to build better homes and stronger places”. Collaborative Housing are presently working with Thame Community Land Trust.
Watch a video about Collaborative Housing’s work across the Thames Valley and read more about how community land trusts are finding solutions to housing challenges in rural communities across England.
Image from Collaborative Housing website