Neighbourhood planning process
Neighbourhood plans allow local people to come together to decide how they want their area to develop. Once finalised and adopted by the council, a neighbourhood plan will become the starting point for determining planning applications in that area.
The neighbourhood plan can influence issues such as:
- where new housing or employment might be located in the area
- types of development, including materials to be used for new development
- opportunities for green infrastructure, for example, open spaces, pedestrian paths
To be adopted by the council, neighbourhood plans must:
- conform with strategic policies contained in the development plan
- undergo an independent examination
- get a minimum of 50 percent approval from residents in a local referendum
Once the plan has been supported by the referendum it will become 'made'. This means it is part of the development plan and carries legal weight in making planning decisions.
Neighbourhood planning protocol
We have produced a toolkit to help groups who wish to set up neighbourhood forums in areas which do not have a parish. The toolkit should be seen as a starting point and the potential forum should discuss their ideas with our planning officers at an early stage.
Similarly, we have produced a Neighbourhood Planning Protocol detailing the required sign-offs at each stage and signposting to different sources of information.