Major referendum on Portsmouth's first neighbourhood plan is revealed - here's when you can vote

The vote on the Milton Neighbourhood Development Plan, which will be used to guide decisions on planning applications for schemes in the area, will take place on Thursday, August 18.

Created by a team of volunteers over the last seven years, the document is the first of its kind in the city and covers issues from the shortage of affordable housing in Portsmouth to priorities for the the St James' Hospital and Langstone Campus sites which have been earmarked for redevelopment.

'I don't think people tend to realise how much of a process this has been,' councillor Kimberly Barrett, a Portsmouth City Council cabinet member who has worked on the plan said.

'Rod [Bailey, its chairman] and the neighbourhood planning team have put not just one, two, three or five years of their lives on hold for this. It's seven long years this process has taken.

'Many people have given their blood, sweat, tears, time – and often sanity – over this project but we have got to this stage now and it's a good document. It shows the amount of hard work that's gone into it by so many people.

'Giving the people the right to vote on whether to accept this document is the next step - to give people the democratic choice.'

The decision to progress the document to a referendum, which is expected to cost £11,000 to hold, was made by the city council's cabinet last month and follows the acceptance of its legality by an independent planning examiner earlier this year.

The referendum will be open to anyone living in the area covered by the plan and will ask for a vote on whether it is adopted as part of planning policy for the next 15 years.

Polling cards or postal votes will be sent to everyone registered to vote in the area and the council’s plan can be viewed in person at the Civic Offices, Central Library, Beddow Library (Milton) and Eastney Community Centre, in Bransbury Road.