The Longridge Neighbourhood Plan will be voted upon by the people of Longridge on Thursday 14th February and Longridge Councillors Ken Hind, Rupert Swarbrick, Jim Rogerson, Jim White, David Smith and Stuart Carefoot are urging the public to vote in its support.

Ken Hind commented ''The plan was conceived a number of years ago when Longridge Borough and Town Councillors saw the opportunity to give Longridge residents a greater say in the development of their community. The role of developing the plan fell to the Longridge Town Council who have done a difficult job well , they have been supported by the Ribble Valley Borough Council and the there have been a number of public consultations on its content."

''Longridge residents need to vote for the Neighbourhood  on Thursday. It means that every developer will have to jump 3 fences in getting planning approval, the first is the national planning Law the NPPF, the second the Ribble Valley Borough Plan and the third Longridge Neighbourhood Plan. The latter will give the local residents more power that ever before in relation to local developments and will cover all aspects of Longridge life, housing, jobs, commercial and industrial development, green open spaces heritage and conservation areas, leisure and recreation. It gives the 5390 residents of Longridge, eligible to vote, an additional voice in the planning their future." 

''Most important is the ability of the Town Council and local residents to have a voice on the type of housing built .We obviously have a need to insist to developers we build more retirement home, particularly bungalows and starter homes either to buy or rent for those particularly young people wishing to join the housing ladder."

''Longridge has seen a lot of new homes approved by both City of Preston and  Ribble Valley Borough Council. Preston have approved homes  on the green fields  on the edge of Longridge and the residents have had no voice in the matter. The current planning consultation being carried out by the government includes a requirement for greater cooperation between local authorities which will have an impact on Ribble Valley and Preston Councils  working together. The number of homes required by local authorities to be built annually government have proposed to reduce for the Ribble Valley from 280 a year to 172 but it is felt this will rise to about 200 when government analyse the figures again.Tighter housing numbers will help Longridge residents resist excessive housing development."

''Many councillors feel that infrastructure lags behind housing development and the future requires councils to make the developers pay by attaching conditions to developments for payments for school places health care provision roads ,pavements, leisure facilities including parks and sports fields. Government are considering in the consultation introducing a compulsory payment  for this purpose known as the Community Infrastructure Levy or CIL on each house built excluding affordable homes. Even if it is not adopted local councils will have sufficient existing powers to demand payments for improvements to local infrastructure to be levied on each new development."