Planning within the parish of Toft Newton
West Lindsey District Council is the local planning authority, you will need to apply to them to find out if you need planning permission, to gain planning permission, for certificates of lawful development and for planning encorcement isues. Their planning website is accessible here. In some circumstances, you may need to apply to Lincolnshire County Council, you can find further details here.
The Government has recently consulted on developing a Spatial Development Strategy for the whole of Greater Lincolnshire, this would be chaired by the Mayor of Greater Lincolnshire, Dame Andrea Jenkyns and mean that planning policies are more consistent across the area. There are also plans to clarify the powers of the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government to have a say on Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIP) planning applications, this updated guidance can be viewed here. Additionally, the Planning Inspectorate has produced various documents on NSIPs, which can be accessed here,
Public consultation is an important part of the planning process. Members of the public as well as a range of statutory consultees can submit comments on live local, regional and national planning applications. Toft Newton Parish Council is a statutory consultee for planning applications within the parish of Toft Newton.
We include Planning Applications on our meeting agendas, so that Councillors can have their say in our public meetings. We commit to sharing information with residents about planning applciations within the parish that need a response between our meetings.
Toft Newton Parish Council does usually respond to consultations sent to us by West Lindsey Disctrict Council, our responses can be viewed via the Planning Portal, on the individual planning applications, we will also make our future planning responses available via the following webpage.
The Parish Council agreeed the following Planning Prinicples and Aspirations for the parish on the 27th of October 2027 , we work with these Principles and Aspirations when determining our consultation response to parisj pallning applications.:
- Toft Newton Parish Council will not object to developments that benefit the parish, provide employment, formal or informal leisure and recreational opportunities or improve individual homes. But we want to ensure that the fantastic natural environment within our parish is protected and where possible enhanced by any such development.
- We ask that developers and planners consider not only standard flooding models, but also take into account the recent history of localised surface water flooding in our parish and in neighbouring parishes, that due to climate change, our winters are getting wetter and colder, it is also importing to consider the clay-heavy soil that makes natural drainage difficult and slow. Developers should also use internationally renowned flooding models, such as the 2050 flooding map by Central Climate.
https://coastal.climatecentral.org/mapview/8/5.5909/52.3288/fdccebbfda0efda8f47d7a1638f5078c77b2bb82867d0dd40bd9b6092ac1e89d.
- We would be concerned about the loss of natural habitats as a result of non-domestic developments, therefore, we would want to see investment via approved habitat banks that would provide a biodiversity net gain, and we would prefer that those as close to the parish as possible are used to improve the quality and availability of suitable wildlife habitats within the region, and as close to the development as possible.
Habitat banks, such as those based at Doddington Hall in West Lindsey, Brocklesby in North East Lincolnshire, Priory Park in North Lincolnshire, between Stixwould and Wragby in East Lindsey, or Boothby Pagnall in South Kesteven would be our preference.
- Toft Newton Parish Council would want any developments within our parish to be sympathetic to our rural community, established history and enhance the appeal of the parish. We set out our commitment to the environment in our Environmental and Sustainability Policy which will be adopted in January 2027.
- We would be more likely to support medium to large sized developments that enhance the overall parish and bring value to our current residents, community organisations and businesses as well as to our future generations.
Therefore any sizeable commercial or housing developments must comply with their Town and Country Planning Act 1989 Section 106 (s106) or Planning Act 2008 Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) agreements in full to benefit the whole community, as quickly as possible, in particular noting that our roads are rural, often single track, that our electricity, water and sewerage networks are not designed for significant expansion and that we are a parish that does not have a natural gas supply, therefore the provision of oil or LPG gas supplies would need to be considered. Where possible we would want s106 or CIL funding to be kept within our parish to benefit all residents.
- We expect that developments will not impinge on our parishioners’ opportunities for formal and informal play, sports and recreation. The council adopted a Play Policy in April 2026 which affirms our commitment to maintaining formal and informal play, sports and recreation spaces that encourage the development of children’s’ social, physical, intellectual, creative and emotional skills. https://toft-newton.parish.lincolnshire.gov.uk/downloads/file/93/play-policy-2026
- As our parish covers 935 hectares of rural land, we expect developers to ensure that their developments do not urbanise our parish and therefore they must incorporate as many Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS) into their developments as possible. Ensuring that any SuDS meet and where possible exceed the 2025 National Standards, the more developers commit to ensuring that their developments do not negatively affect our rural parish, the more likely we will be to support it. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-standards-for-sustainable-drainage-systems/national-standards-for-sustainable-drainage-systems-suds#principles
The full Planning Principles and Aspirations document can be downloaded here.
If there is a significant planning application that will impact our parish, we may call a public meeting to consult with local residents.
We will also respond to planning applications in neighbouring parishes, despite not being a statutory consultee, if we believe the development will have an impact on the quality of life of our residents. While our consultation response will be considered, it carries no additional weight for an application in a neighbouring parish. For example we submitted a detailed reponse to a planning application in the Faldingworth parish in August 2025, see our Planning Responses webpage to view a copy of the response.
We welcome residents of the parish of Toft Newton to share their thoughts with us about local planning issues or any other parish related issue, via our Contact page.
The Central Lincolnshire Local Plan will be updated shortly, due to changes in Government legislation. You can keep up to date with the update and consultation process here.
The Government is currently updating the Neighbourhood Planning Toolkit, it is expected to publish the new guidance in April 2027, after which time Toft Newton Parish Council will consider developing a Neighbourhood Plan for the parish.
Our former Parish Clerk, Responsible Financial Officer and Proper Officer took part in a consultation and an end-user beta test with The Planning Inspectorate in February 2026, this particular consultation and beta test was looking at new procedures to be followed when taking a rejected planning application to The Planning Inspectorate. Our former Clerk provided lots of useful feedback that will be considered, and used to correct the flaws in the new software that he identified.
Useful websites and documents: