At last we have some clarity on the West of Hook situation. At the meeting with Katie Bailey and Daniel Hawes of Hart DC it was confirmed that West of Hook is a Strategic Site, and therefore is outside the scope of a Neighbourhood Plan. Its status is because it conforms to the Local Plan’s criteria for Strategic Sites as expressed in the Local Plan evidence base, despite the fact there is no mention of West of Hook in the Plan itself.
Being a Strategic Site, any application for West of Hook would be rejected as not conforming to the Local Plan. However, despite this and the fact it is specifically out of the scope of the Neighbourhood Plan, we were also advised that we needed to include it in our site assessments. This was to ensure that any application for development on this site would be seen in context of the overall development plan for Hook.