Legislation was introduced and funding provided to allow local communities to develop their own detailed plans to complement local authority planning.  A number of parishes in Newcastle under Lyme have already formed Neighbourhood Planning Groups and are actively developing their plans.  NuLBC are appointing an officer to assist with the development of such plans which are approved by independent assessors and are binding upon local authorities.

What a Neighbourhood Plan can and cannot do

A Neighbourhood Plan can:

• Decide where and what type of development should happen in the neighbourhood.
• Promote more development than is set out in the Local Plan.
• Include policies, for example regarding design standards, that take precedence over  existing policies in the Local Plan for the neighbourhood – provided the Neighbourhood Plan policies do not conflict with the strategic policies in the Local Plan.  In our case, developing a Neighbourhood Plan should allow us to contribute more meaningfully to the development of the Joint Local Plan

A Neighbourhood Plan cannot:

• Conflict with the strategic policies in the Local Plan prepared by the local planning authority.
• Be used to prevent development that is included in the Local Plan.
• Be prepared by a body other than a parish or town council or a neighbourhood forum.

What is involved?

The link above leads to a detailed resource from the Campaign for Rural England.

We need to decide whether we want to develop a Neighbourhood Plan, thir process will begin at the meeting on Wednesday 27th April.  We will then need to:

• Recruit volunteers
• Consult with the community about its needs.
• Develop a vision and objectives
• Develop options for the draft plan
• Develop a draft plan
• Consult , revise as necessary and submit to the local authority
• Submit the plan for independent examination
• The plan is adopted

This process typically takes around two years to complete.

Neighbourhood Plan Examples

Brereton

Bunbury