Neighbourhood planning

New Forest National Park Authority and New Forest District Council received the Examiner’s Report on the Lymington & Pennington Neighbourhood Plan on 24 September 2025. A copy of the final Examiner’s Report can be found here. Both Authorities are required to publish a response (see ‘Decision Statement’) to the Examiner’s Report under the Neighbourhood Planning (General) Regulations 2012. The appointed Examiner provided eight modifications to the Plan in order for it to meet the Basic Conditions and proceed to referendum stage. The National Park’s response to the modifications were endorsed by Planning Committee on 18 November 2025 and can be found here.

New Forest District Council were responsible for arranging the local referendum into the draft Neighbourhood Plan. This was held on 29 January 2026 and the results were 92.5% voting in favour of the Plan, with a turnout of 17.1%. The New Forest National Park Authority is due to formally ‘make’ (i.e. adopt) the Neighbourhood Plan at the full Authority meeting on 26 March 2026. Further details on the Lymington & Pennington Neighbourhood Plan are available at Lymington and Pennington Neighbourhood Plan – New Forest District Council.

The revised draft New Milton Neighbourhood Plan was subject to an eight-week public consultation between Friday 28 November 2025 and Friday 23 January 2026. During the period of consultation, stakeholders and members of the public were able to comment on the emerging neighbourhood plan and other submitted documents.

This is an update to the ‘made’ New Milton Neighbourhood Plan and further details on both the existing Neighbourhood Plan and the emerging review of the Plan are available at New Milton Neighbourhood Plan – New Forest District Council.

The draft Wellow Neighbourhood Plan was subject to local referendum on 11 July 2024.  At this referendum a total of 91% of those who voted supported the plan, with a turn-out of 23%. Following this positive public endorsement, we formally adopted (or ‘made’) the Wellow Neighbourhood Plan at the full Authority meeting on 25 July 2024 for the part of the parish within the National Park. The statutory ‘Decision Statement’ and adopted Neighbourhood Plan are available via the ‘Wellow Neighbourhood Plan’ tab below. The adopted Wellow Neighbourhood Plan forms part of the statutory ‘development plan’ for the part of the New Forest National Park in Wellow parish.

If you have any questions regarding the Plan or the referendum please contact the Test Valley Neighbourhood Planning team on 01264 368000 or neighbourhoodplanning@testvalley.gov.uk  or view the information available at: Wellow Neighbourhood Development Plan | Test Valley Borough Council

The draft Ringwood Neighbourhood Plan was subject to local referendum on 4 July 2024. At this referendum a total of 83% of those who voted supported the plan, with a turn-out of 59%. Following this positive public endorsement, we formally adopted (or ‘made’) the Ringwood Neighbourhood Plan at the full Authority meeting on 25 July 2024 for the part of the parish within the National Park. The statutory ‘Decision Statement’ and adopted Neighbourhood Plan are available via the ‘Ringwood Neighbourhood Plan’ tab below. The adopted Ringwood Neighbourhood Plan forms part of the statutory ‘development plan’ for the part of the New Forest National Park in Ringwood parish.

The draft New Milton Neighbourhood Plan was subject to local referendum on 6 May 2021. At this local referendum a total of 88% of those who voted supported the Neighbourhood Plan, with a turn-out of 35%. Following this positive public endorsement, we formally adopted (or ‘made’) the New Milton Neighbourhood Plan at the full Authority meeting on 1 July 2021 for the part of the parish within the National Park. The statutory ‘Decision Statement’ and adopted Neighbourhood Plan are available via the ‘New Milton Neighbourhood Plan’ tab below.

The adopted New Milton Neighbourhood Plan forms part of the statutory ‘development plan’ for the part of the New Forest National Park in New Milton parish.

The final draft version of the Hythe & Dibden Neighbourhood Plan, incorporating the Examiner’s required modifications, was the subject of a local referendum on 29 October 2019. At the local referendum 84.8% of those who voted supported the Neighbourhood Plan, with a turn-out of 15%. Following this positive endorsement at referendum, we formally adopted (or ‘made’) the Hythe & Dibden Neighbourhood Plan at the full Authority meeting on 18 December 2019 for the part of the parish within the National Park. The ‘Decision Statement’ and adopted Neighbourhood Plan are available via the ‘Hythe and Dibden Neighbourhood Plan’ tab below.    The adopted Hythe & Dibden Neighbourhood Plan forms part of the statutory ‘development plan’ for the part of the New Forest National Park in Hythe & Dibden parish.