Neighbourhood Development Plans

(asked on 27th May 2015) - View Source

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.


Answered by
Baroness Williams of Trafford Portrait
Baroness Williams of Trafford
Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
This question was answered on 10th June 2015

Whilst information is not collected centrally, our informal monitoring tells us that as of the end of May 2015:

  • referendums have been held on the making of 67 neighbourhood plans. In each case the majority of those who voted were in favour of the neighbourhood plan being made (on average 89% of those voting voted in favour). 62 of the neighbourhood plans were instigated by a parish council and five by designated neighbourhood forums.

  • in total, 274 communities have carried out, or are currently carrying out, pre-submission consultation and publicity on a neighbourhood plan proposal.

  • 1,221 communities across England have applied for a neighbourhood area to be designated (the first formal step in the process) but have not yet undertaken pre-submission consultation and publicity on a neighbourhood plan proposal.

  • one Neighbourhood Development Order (Cockermouth) and three Community Right to Build Orders (Ferring) have been made (brought into force). A Neighbourhood Development Order grants planning permission for specific development or a class of development in a specified neighbourhood area (a community right to build order is a type of neighbourhood development order).

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.

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