What is a Neighbourhood Plan?
The idea of a Neighbourhood Plan is to enable communities to have a say in developing planning policies for their local area. It was introduced by David Cameron and the coalition government in 2012. The aim was to try and empower local communities to set priorities, have a say in the size and location of new housing developments, and positively guide how their local areas change and develop.
The advantage to communities which adopt a Neighbourhood Plan, through the process of a local plan referendum, is that an increased proportion of the so-called Community Infrastructure Levy would flow to the community to be spent on local priorities rather than go to the District Council as is currently the case locally.
What’s the difference between a Neighbourhood Plan and a Local Plan
A Local Plan is produced by planners and offers at District Council level, in our case New Forest District Council, and provides higher level policies and strategies to control development across a wide area. A Neighbourhood Plan has to generally comply with a Local Plan, but it can go much further and identify local priorities and strategies and new policies for topics which the Local Plan doesn’t cover. It is still restricted to planning issues though so it can’t cover things like crime or public transport.
Find a more detailed explanation of Neighbourhood Planning here.
> Ideas for inclusion in Lymington’s Neighbourhood Plan
Neighbourhood Planning as part of Local Planning
Neighbourhood Plans cannot go against the agreed local plan put in place by the local planning authority, in our case the New Forest District Council, but they do have wide scope to set the framework for developments in the community into the future as well as securing a larger share of developer contributions which come directly to the community or in our case the Town Council.
The crux of the development of a neighbourhood plan is that it should be based on extensive “Community Involvement” with surveys and communications with the local population from the start. See here for more details of what should be undertaken.
Find out more about Community Involvement in Neighbourhood Planning here.
> The Lymington Society’s concerns about the lack of Community Involvement
Once the draft local plan has been produced, it goes for consultation and finally it has to go to a referendum of local people before it is approved and becomes operational.
> The Lymington Society’s ideas for inclusion in a Neighbourhood Plan
Have your say!
The Lymington Society 