South Bank & Waterloo Neighbourhood Plan: last chance to comment

The South Bank and Waterloo neighbourhood plan covers the area bounded by the river Thames in the north and west, Lambeth Road in the south, Bernie Spain Gardens in the north-east and St George's Cathedral in the south-east.

Most of the area covered by the plan falls in the borough of Lambeth, with a chunk of Southwark south of Ufford Street and west of Blackfriars Road also included.

The plan has been drawn up under the provisions of the Localism Act which gives local people and businesses powers to put together local planning policy documents, rather than relying on top-down plans drawn up by council officials.

In his foreword to the plan, chair John Langley wrote: "The plan attempts to address the biggest problems that you said face our area and the solutions were developed by local people too, in a completely open process."

He added: "When the plan is finally adopted by Lambeth and Southwark, the process will have taken four years. This fact underlines the strength of commitment demonstrated by local people to see the plan completed.

"These timescales are also reflective of the complexities of neighbourhood planning in the city, where boundaries are not obvious, where local authorities are planning in parallel, where there is significant development pressure and where there is a large population."

Mr Langley also cited "a prevailing determination to ensure that the community should have a stronger say in how development should benefit them, or might be tempered".

Details of the draft plan and how to comment on it can be found at http://www.sowneighbours.org/time-to-speak-up/ – the consultation period ends on Friday 20 January.

The plan will eventually be the subject of a local referendum before it is adopted as part of the area's formal planning policy.