Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether parish councils can make a Neighbourhood Development Plan jointly for all or part of their areas, and if so, under what provision.
Whilst information is not collected centrally, our informal monitoring tells us that as of the end of May 2015:
A local planning authority must publish a map setting out the areas that are for the time being designated as neighbourhood areas. Details of the locations of neighbourhood planning across England, by local authority, can be found in the attached list. An interactive map with details of the referendums can be found at:
https://www.thinglink.com/scene/647092767838699520
A single parish council (as a relevant body) can apply for a multi-parished neighbourhood area to be designated as long as that multi-parished area includes all or part of that parish council’s administrative area. When the parish council begins to develop a neighbourhood plan or an Order (as a qualifying body) it needs to secure the consent of the other parish councils to undertake neighbourhood planning activities. The relevant provision is set out in section 61F of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 as applied to neighbourhood plans by section 38C of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004.