Neighbourhood planning was introduced by the Localism Act 2011. It enables you to draw up a Neighbourhood Plan for your local area and is intended to give you and your community more of a say in the development of your local area.
A Neighbourhood Plan is a framework for guiding the future development, regeneration and conservation of an area. It is different from other planning documents because it is prepared by the local community. Once it has been completed through a statutory process and adopted by us, the policies in the plan will be used, alongside our planning policy documents, to make decisions on planning applications in the area.
For more information, watch the My Community video Understanding Neighbourhood Planning.
Support
To support you in the preparation of a neighbourhood plan we provide:
- support and advice
- strategic planning context
- responses to applications to designated neighbourhood forums and areas
- consultations on the plans you send us
- validation checks on the plan
- examinations and referendums
- the democratic process to ensure that the neighbourhood plan is 'made'.
Please contact our neighbourhood planning team by email at neighbourhoodplanning@bcpcouncil.gov.uk. You can make an application to us for a Neighbourhood Forum Designation and Neighbourhood Area Designation by reading the guidance notes and completing our application form. You can also view a summary of the key stages. Further information on the current funding, advice and guidance available can be found on the Locality website.