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Neighbourhood plans for Adur
Communities are being encouraged and empowered to prepare neighbourhood plans. The emerging Localism Act introduces this concept whereby parish councils and neighbourhood forums can, if they wish, produce plans to shape and manage development for their local areas.
As the Government states, neighbourhood planning will ‘give local people a real voice in deciding the look and feel of development in their area’.
Although regulations for neighbourhood plans are still awaited, the main principles are outlined below:
- What will neighbourhood plans do?
- What type of area is suitable for neighbourhood plans?
- Who can produce neighbourhood plans?
- What is the role of the local authority?
- Planning context for Adur
- What is the relationship between neighbourhood plans and Adur’s Local Plan?
- Can communities use neighbourhood plans to stop development in the area?
- What are the main steps in preparing a plan?
- Useful links
What will neighbourhood plans do?
They will give local communities the opportunity to come together through a local parish council and state where they think new houses, businesses and shops should go. The matters to be addressed in a neighbourhood plan must relate to development and the use of land and would have the aim of furthering the social, economic and environmental well-being of individuals in the area, as well as shaping the area for the future.
What type of area is suitable for neighbourhood plans?
The areas suitable for neighbourhood plans can be parishes and neighbourhoods (in un-parished areas including wards, housing estates and areas covered by residents’ associations). Where there are not parish councils, the local authority will adjudicate on the boundary of the plan that a neighbourhood forum wants to prepare.
Who can produce neighbourhood plans?
Parish Councils and Neighbourhood Forums (the latter to be formally designated by the Council) can produce neighbourhood plans. Developers, businesses and land owners could be involved and work with local communities – funding and bringing forward plans.
What is the role of the local authority?
The creation of neighbourhood plans is a partnership between the local community and the Council. The Council can advise and support the process. Support could include providing evidence, helping to procure consultants, facilitating the public consultation and the arranging and holding of the independent examination and the referendum. Unfortunately, with severe budget restrictions, the Council will not be able to financially support neighbourhood production beyond what is currently budgeted for plan making unless further funding is made available by the Government.
Planning context for Adur
The Act makes clear that there remains the need to produce a district-wide development plan to set overall housing numbers and employment levels and to indicate broad locations for new development and change and strategic infrastructure over the next 20 years.
Any neighbourhood plan must be in line with national policies and also the strategic policies in an adopted district-wide plan. For Adur, this is currently the saved policies in the Local Plan (1996) but later in 2013 will be the more up-to-date Local Plan, which will incorporate the housing and employment floorspace targets for the area and development site allocations for housing, employment and other uses. The Adur Local Plan is currently being produced and it is important that residents and businesses input into this through all the consultation and engagement exercises currently underway and being planned over the next year. It is anticipated that the Local Plan will be adopted in the Autumn of 2013 and the neighbourhood plans must accord with this. A Local Development Scheme will provides details of the timetable for the Local Plan and other documents in due course but please contact the Planning policy team in the interim - planning.policy@adur-worthing.gov.uk.
What is the relationship between neighbourhood plans and Adur’s Local Plan?
As an overall guideline, the Local Plan will outline how many homes are to be built, where they are to be built and the timing of building in relation to infrastructure improvements. A neighbourhood plan can be very simple and concise, or go into considerable detail and this will be up to the Parish Council or Neighbourhood Forum developing the plan. It is anticipated that a neighbourhood plan would go into more detail by:
- identifying smaller sites for development, community use and public open space
- determining the type of housing that should be built
- stating general principles of design for the new developments.
The Minister for Decentralisation and Cities, Greg Clarke states that:
“…with neighbourhood plans, we are defining a new basic building block of planning… But not all planning can take place at that very local level. Neighbourhood plans don’t replace wider, local plans. Nor do they diminish the importance of these local plans.”
The idea is that using guidelines set in an adopted neighbourhood plan and using policies from the Local Plan, a community organisation will then be able to bring forward development proposals which, providing they meet minimum criteria and can demonstrate local support through a referendum, will be able to go ahead without requiring separate traditional planning applications. This will make it quicker and easier for development to go ahead in the future and ensure that development is concentrated and channelled through those areas that will support and contribute most to the community.
Will communities be able to use neighbourhood plans to stop development in their area?
Neighbourhood plans must be in line with strategic policies and will not be able to block any new strategic development. The purpose of neighbourhood planning is about enabling development and adapting development to suit the community’s needs but not stopping it. As a result, neighbourhood plans must provide for as much or more development as the District Council’s plans require.
What are the main steps in preparing a plan?
From inception to adoption, it is anticipated that a neighbourhood plan may take up to 18 months to produce. The main steps are:
- Raising awareness - ensuring the local community in the area know that a plan is being produced and getting feedback on key issues.
- Drafting the plan and ensuring it accords with existing plans and guidance.
- Collection of the right evidence to support policies in the neighbourhood plan. There may also be a need to produce a sustainability appraisal to assess the impact of the plan on the environment.
- Effective community engagement to ensure widespread community support.
- An independent examination to check if the plan is ‘sound’ - that is in line with national guidance, European Directives, with strategic policies in the Local Plan and with any adjacent neighbourhood plans.
- If the plan is found to be sound, this is to be put to a local referendum and will be approved if more than 50% of those voting vote in favour of it.
- If the referendum is positive, then the local authority will have to adopt the plan and it will become part of the development plan for the area.
More information will be provided on neighbourhood plans once the Bill is enacted and there is more detailed guidance from the Department for Communities and Local Government. This will also be accompanied by further advice on how the Council will work with parish councils and those community groups interested in preparing a neighbourhood plan.
Useful links
Localism Bill:
- Explanatory notes on the Localism Bill
- A Plain English Guide to the Localism Act – Updated June 2011
Neighbourhood Planning
- Future of Planning Paper No.6: Neighbourhood Planning
- Royal Town Planning Institute: Neighbourhood Planning
- What is a neighbourhood, when it isn’t a parish? (.PDF)
- Neighbourhood Planning: Questions and Answers (.PDF)
- Neighbourhood Planning FAQs – Updated November 2011
- Neighbourhood Planning in Bookham, Mole Valley: A Case Study
- Neighbourhood Planning: A Guide for Ward Councillors
Adur District Council Planning Policy Team
Email: planning.policy@adur-worthing.gov.uk
