More on neighbourhood planning

Neighbourhood planning has been with us for well over a year now, ever since the Localism Act was passed in later 2011. But it has taken time for the first neighbourhood plans to be prepared, voted in on local referenda and accepted as local development plan documents. In theory, this was a radical move towards greater involvement of local communities in the planning of their localities - a genuine form of bottom-up planning. Town and parish councils and newly-formed neighbourhood forums could emerge from a variety of local groupings and be given the authority to draft such a plan. Local residents would be given a final say through a referendum, although only a bare majority was needed to pass the neighbourhood plan; note, though, that local businesses are potentially eligible to vote on any business-led plan. But in practice, this seems less radical than at first hoped or feared. Any such neighbourhood plan has to be in conformity with the Local Plan which potentially heads off conflict between neighbourhood forums and local planning authorities but may also demotivate community action. These plans are primarily about where and how to permit new development in the locality, which is a rather restricted perspective on what local communities may actually want to do with their areas. Local visioning, of the sort I mentioned in my last post, may well go beyond this particular concern of the statutory planning system. Recent research by DEFRA (yes, the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs not that for Communities and Local Government) found - at least in rural areas - the process of preparing plans was quite protracted and expensive. The demands on local authority planning staff can be considerable - particularly as they have to fit into the statutory planning system and be shown to be 'evidence-based'. So perhaps this is more business-as-usual that might be wished (as is often the case when one tinkers with the statutory planning system). But one interesting item in the DEFRA research is that at least one plan - in the tourist area of Lynmouth and Lynton - has been used to focus housing on meeting local needs through a 'primary residence' policy; if this is not the case, then the housing has to be offered for rent or sale as affordable housing. Quite how this will implemented will be interesting to watch.