A PARISH council will investigate whether to draw up a neighbourhood plan, despite a public meeting being told it could cost thousands and be overtaken by a new borough plan.

South Swindon Parish Council is looking into how a neighbourhood plan, which sets the planning priorities for an area, could work.

But at a public meeting at the Broadgreen Community Centre concerns were raised over how effective such a plan would prove and if it would be more productive for the parish to feed ideas into Swindon Borough Council's new local plan.

Coun Chris Watts, chairman of the parish council, acknowledged that the process of developing a neighbourhood plan could help bring different communities and groups together. But he feared the neighbourhood plan would prove of little use in preventing developers from winning permission to build in sites not earmarked for new homes. Neighbourhood plans can cost anything from a few thousand pounds to develop to £90,000, although a government grant could cover up to £9,000 of the cost.

The worries came a year after Wroughton Parish Council’s neighbourhood plan had proved ineffective in stopping Hannick Homes from getting permission from central government to build more than 100 homes east of Marlborough Road. Wroughton’s neighbourhood plan took almost three years to develop.

Meanwhile, members of the public suggested the parish could be too large for a single neighbourhood plan. Set up in 2017, the parish stretches from the urban town centre to East Wichel and Walcot to the more rural Broome Manor.

The different character of different neighbourhoods in the parish risked introducing one size fits all policies. One man told councillors: “You couldn’t have a decision made in one part of the parish that had a knock on effect on other parts.”

Coun Stan Pajak suggested concentrating a neighbourhood plan on a particular area. Karen Phimister of Swindon Borough Council’s planning team said it would be possible to draw up a plan on, for example, the parish’s historic buildings and green spaces.

Ms Phimister admitted a neighbourhood plan might not be able to stop developers from building homes, but she said other benefits included community engagement and a cash boost as the parish councils are able to get an extra chunk of the money paid by developers to local planning authorities.

However, Coun Watts said some developers had recently been given the green light by the borough council, who said they did not need to pay the Community Infrastructure Levy, which goes towards improving roads, building schools and other services.

“From some developers we would get 25 per cent of the CIL money,” he said. “But that’s 25 per cent of nothing.”

Parish councillors will consider the points raised at the public meeting and how they might get more people involved in developing a neighbourhood plan.