CRADLEY residents are being asked to go to the polls to vote on their Neighbourhood Development Plan.

The referendum will take place on Thursday, July 13, between 7am and 10pm.

Polling stations will be set up in Cradley and Storridge village halls and the vote will be restricted to people who live in the parish area.

The referendum is the culmination of a five-year process to create the plan, which will govern development in the village up to 2031.

A neighbourhood plan development group was set up by Cradley Parish Council in 2012.

Since then, the group has carried out intensive consultations in the parish and put together the report, which went to Herefordshire Council before going to a planning inspector for approval.

Chris Lowder, chairman of the group, said: “The inspector was very complementary about how thorough our consultation process within the village was, which has made us pretty happy.”

If the residents vote in favour of the plan, it will become the official planning policy for the village.

Mr Lowder said: “With the neighbourhood plan in place, any predatory developer will have to make sure that his plans fit in with the framework for planning that we have designed.

“It brings a power to the parish level that we have never had before.”

The referendum question that will be posed to voters is: ‘Do you want Herefordshire Council to use the neighbourhood plan for Cradley to help it decide planning applications in the neighbourhood area?’

Referendums are also being held in Eaton Bishop, Lower Bullingham and Orleton and Richards Castle on Thursday.