Step one - is a neighbourhood plan for you?
Before you begin, you should make sure a Neighbourhood Plan will do what you want it to. You may find a community led plan is more suitable right now. They have the added advantage that you can use them to help create a neighbourhood plan in the future.
To see some examples of what the different types of plan are for, and how a community led plans can help you create a neighbourhood plan take a look at this diagram.
How to make a decision
Address the issues and opportunities your community faces. Answer questions like where are we now? Where do we want to be? How do we get there? To help you do this, you can:
- gather information about your area
- assess your area’s strengths and weaknesses
- draft a vision statement for your community
- identify a series of objectives.
This is known as ‘scoping’.
FIND OUT MORE
Look at what other communities are doing, especially ones similar to yours
BACKGROUND READING
The Localism Act 2011
Plain English guide to the Localism Act 2011
Step two - what do you want to do?
Most of you are here to read about how to put together a Neighbourhood Development Plan, which is what we refer to as a Neighbourhood Plan. But you can also use this toolkit to help create a neighbourhood development order or a community right to build order, because the processes are very similar. Here’s a quick summary of what each of them is for:
Neighbourhood development plan
Use it to set out a vision for your area and to provide planning policies to decide what types of new homes and businesses should be built, where and what they should look like.
Neighbourhood development plans must:
- contribute to sustainable development
- not prevent development proposed in the Local Plan from taking place, which would provide housing
- adhere to national planning policy and guidance
- be compatible with EU obligations and human rights requirements
If your neighbourhood development plan meets these basic conditions and is approved at a local referendum, we will adopt it and use it to help decide planning applications the area. You shouldn’t try to use these plans as a way to prevent development.
Neighbourhood development order
You can use this to grant permission for certain types of development for a particular site or area. It means a development can go ahead in that area without making a planning application, as long as they comply with the current policies and regulations.
Community right to build order
These can give community organisations the right to build small-scale developments on specific sites without needing planning permission. You can use them to encourage buildings that benefit the community like affordable housing, playgrounds or a village shops.
Step three - getting started
How we will help
We carry out a lot of the formal processes, like organising the referendum. We will also:
- explain the process
- advise you on how to conduct consultations
- explain what evidence you need to provide
- provide a ‘critical friend’ role whilst you draft the plan
- attend your neighbourhood planning meetings when invited, to provide advice and support
- review your draft documents to ensure that they meet the basic conditions
- provide advice and support dealing with the media, and publicising your work.
Setting up your neighbourhood plan group
The first step is identifying the ‘qualifying body’ that will be responsible for submitting the Neighbourhood Plan. The qualifying body is either a parish/town council or neighbourhood forum. Communities covered by a parish meeting need to set up a neighbourhood planning forum if they wish to prepare a neighbourhood plan. More information on setting up a neighbourhood planning forum can be found here.
The neighbourhood planning group usually includes town or parish councillors as well as local people with useful skills and knowledge. To give your plan the best chance of success in the referendum, it should represent the whole community, so you should involve the wider community from the start. Examples of community organisations that might join the group include:
- local businesses and chambers of commerce
- schools and health centres
- local residents and other community groups.
This is known as a ‘steering group’.
Take a look at our guidance note about setting up a neighbourhood plan steering group.
Write a ‘terms of reference’ so the objectives of the group are clear – here is an example you can adapt for your steering group.
KNOW THE RULES
The Neighbourhood Planning (General) Regulations 2012
The Neighbourhood Planning (General) (Amendment) Regulations 2015
USEFUL LINKS
How to set up a neighbourhood forum
How to establish a neighbourhood forum
Step four - setting the area your plan will cover
Send us an application to designate the area you want your neighbourhood plan to cover. Your application should be submitted by the clerk and contain:
- a map clearly showing the proposed neighbourhood area
- a supporting statement explaining why the area is appropriate for neighbourhood planning and why the body making the application is relevant for these purposes.
Here’s an template application form.
You can also read our information about mapping services.
A Neighbourhood Planning area can cover a single parish, multiple parishes, or parts of one or several parishes. In all cases, there will be only a single qualifying body who will be responsible for submitting the application.
Where the proposed neighbourhood area comprises the entire area of a parish council, the District Council is not required to undertake a public consultation before determining the application. However, in situations where the proposed neighbourhood area differs from that of a single parish council’s area, the District Council must undertake a six week consultation with the local community and statutory consultees including neighbouring town and parish councils, before determining the application.
Step five - preparing your plan
Lead officer
Once you have confirmed that you are undertaking a Neighbourhood Plan, we will assign you a case officer who specialises in neighbourhood plans. This person is your first point of contact and will:
- help and advise you throughout the process, right up until the successful adoption of your plan;
- help you create your project plan if necessary;
- Undertake screening of the Neighbourhood Plan to establish whether a Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) and/or Habitats Regulations Assessment (HRA) is required, including consultation with the relevant statutory bodies.
Getting to work
If you already have a community led plan, it can help you with some of the first steps that follow. Otherwise, preparing your plan will involve:
- gathering information about the plan area
- finding out the local community’s aspirations and priorities
- drafting a vision for the area
- setting out a clear purpose for a plan including identifying goals or objectives you want the plan to achieve
- drafting planning policies to help deliver the objectives of the plan
- publicising the plan locally, inviting comments from people who live, work and carry out business in the area.
Gathering evidence and opinion
Neighbourhood Planning Guides and Templates
We have prepared a series of neighbourhood planning guides and templates on topics which we think are valuable to local communities preparing neighbourhood plans. They seek to assist groups in the preparation of neighbourhood plans, covering a range of topics which we hope will help groups through every stage of the process and overcome barriers.
The guides and templates available are:
Step six - submitting your plan
Before you can submit the plan to us, you need to carry out a six-week public consultation. You need to publicise it so it can be seen by people who live, work and run businesses in your area. Your Your Lead Officer will be able to provide you with a list of relevant statutory contacts, such as Historic England or the Environment Agency.
You need to ask other interested parties to read and comment on your plan – that includes neighbouring parish councils, significant landowners and local community organisations, like chambers of commerce, civic societies and local trusts.
We have published some guidance on how best to consult the local community, incorporating best practice around GDPR, and how to collate the results of this exercise for the Consultation Statement, which will form part of the formal submission of the Neighbourhood Plan.
- You can publish the plan on your website; and you can put copies in public buildings, like libraries, council offices; and in local shops and businesses. We will also publish the link to where to find documents on our website, and notify councillors.
- It may be useful to summarise the plan in a leaflet and/or on display boards.
- Publicise where people can view the plan, how they can make comments and what the deadline is.
- Consider the comments you receive and amend the plan accordingly.
- Prepare a brief report to summarise the comments you received and show if and how the plan has been modified in response.
Once you’ve taken your community’s comments into account and you’re satisfied with the plan, you can then submit it to us.
Once you’ve taken your community’s comments into account and you’re satisfied with the plan, you can then submit it to us. Make sure that when submitting the Plan to us, the email is sent from the clerk of the town or parish council.
The submission must include:
We will check your plan meets the legal requirements. If your draft plan does not meet the basic conditions and cannot be modified, we may refuse to accept the submitted plan. Additionally, if any of the required information or supporting documents are missing from your submission, we will request these before the submission can be validated.
Once these documents have been submitted and we have confirmed we have received all of the required information, the plan will be publicised during a six week long publicity period, inviting comments from the public and statutory consultees. To help ensure the consultation reaches all relevant parties, we will ask you to provide a list of those consulted during the preparation of the plan and may require your assistance in making the documents available locally. All representations received will be published on our website at the close of the publicity period and will then be submitted, alongside the plan, for independent examination.
Useful links
Step seven – independent examination
We will appoint an independent examiner, in agreement with the qualifying body, to make recommendations on the draft plan. The examiner:
• will decide whether the plan meets the basic conditions and legal requirements;
• will write a report detailing their findings and will make recommendations about the plan, including whether it’s ready to be put to a local referendum;
• may suggest amendments to the plan to ensure that it meets the basic conditions.
• may suggest that people in an adjacent area should be included in the referendum, if the plan closely affects them
The Examiner may ask the steering group to clarify various points, and to respond to representations made during the publicity period.
Hearing
The independent examiner may determine that a public hearing is fitting, to hear oral representations around the plan as a whole or a particular issue within the plan. In general, neighbourhood plan examinations proceed with written representations only but in instances where the examiner asks for it, the District Council will make arrangements for a public hearing to be held. The only participants who the examiner are required to invite are the qualifying body and the District Council, however they may wish to also invite other interested and affected parties.
Examiner’s report
The Examiner’s report is the final stage of the examination process. Once this is received, we will work with you to make the necessary changes to the plan before it is put to referendum. The recommendations within the Examiner’s Report are not legally binding; however, unless there is strong evidence to the contrary, we are likely to approve the examiner’s findings.
Step eight - the referendum
Once the examiner’s report has been published, setting out that the plan meets the basic conditions subject to recommended changes and should proceed to referendum, we will start preparations to organise the local referendum for the plan. If more than 50 per cent of people who vote in the referendum support the plan, we must adopt it.
Both Neighbourhood Development Plans and Neighbourhood Development Orders require a referendum to be adopted. Once they pass referendum, they form part of the development plan and have full weight in the determination of planning applications.
Step nine - adoption and monitoring of your plan
The Neighbourhood Plan will now be used to determine planning applications in the area. The steering group – with its knowledge of the policies and evidence behind the plan – will continue to play a role after the making of the Neighbourhood Plan.
Monitoring
The neighbourhood plan should continue to be monitored after it is made to ensure it remains effective and is applied appropriately in decision-making. The qualifying body should regularly review how the plan is being used in planning decisions and consider whether any updates are needed to maintain its effectiveness, relevance, and consistency with wider planning policy.
Reviewing the Plan
Monitoring your Neighbourhood Plan will help identify whether its vision, objectives and policies are continuing to achieve the desired outcomes. Over time, changes in local circumstances, planning policy and development activity may mean that parts of the plan need to be reviewed and updated.
There is no prescribed timescale or requirement for reviewing a neighbourhood plan. The need for a review will depend on local circumstances and should be considered on a regular basis. Factors that may indicate a review is necessary include:
• The effectiveness of the plan and its policies in achieving the intended outcomes;
• Changes to national planning policy and guidance;
• Changes to local planning policy, including the development plan;
• Significant changes in local circumstances, development pressures or community priorities;
There are several ways in which a neighbourhood plan can be updated:
Minor (non-material) modifications
• Do not materially affect the policies or proposals within the plan.
• Can be made without independent examination or referendum.
Material modifications that do not change the nature of the plan
• Materially affect the policies or proposals within the plan.
• Require independent examination.
• Do not require a referendum.
Material modifications that change the nature of the plan
• Materially affect the policies or proposals within the plan.
• Require independent examination.
• Require a referendum before the modified plan can be made.
The appropriate route will depend on the scale and significance of the proposed changes. Early discussion with the local planning authority can help determine the most suitable approach.
Please contact planning.policy@southandvale.gov.uk if you have any questions on how to go about conducting a review of your Neighbourhood Plan.
Useful links
• Monitoring and reviewing your Neighbourhood Plan
