Funding for Neighbourhood Plans
| neighbourhood_planning_local_authority_funding_18_december_20122.pdf |
Cherwell District Council planning has a duty to support parishes undertaking a Neighbourhood Plan. They get funded up to £50K per Neighbourhood Plan to do this. Read more here.
At a minimum they have to arrange the inspection of the plan and the costs of the referendum.
At a minimum they have to arrange the inspection of the plan and the costs of the referendum.
Other support is left to the discretion of the Planning Authority but the scope of the assistance set out on the Planning Advisory Site:
Scope of advice or assistance
Strong and effective partnership working between the local planning authority and the community is at the heart of successful neighbourhood planning. Accordingly the Government has not sought to prescribe how local planning authorities should meet the ‘duty to support’ requirement. This means that authorities have the discretion to tailor their support to take account of local circumstances, such as the complexity of the Neighbourhood Plan being prepared and the skills and resources of the local authority and the local groups.
Support will be different in each local authority area but set out below are details of what this could include:
Information on neighbourhood planning process and planning issues
Scope of advice or assistance
Strong and effective partnership working between the local planning authority and the community is at the heart of successful neighbourhood planning. Accordingly the Government has not sought to prescribe how local planning authorities should meet the ‘duty to support’ requirement. This means that authorities have the discretion to tailor their support to take account of local circumstances, such as the complexity of the Neighbourhood Plan being prepared and the skills and resources of the local authority and the local groups.
Support will be different in each local authority area but set out below are details of what this could include:
Information on neighbourhood planning process and planning issues
- Setting up a neighbourhood planning web page on the local authority’s website
- Developing a set of advice notes or guides aimed at those thinking at using the neighbourhood planning powers
- Signposting to useful information/sources of funding provided by other organisations
- Providing advice on general planning matters to help groups decide what is the right option for them
- Participation in meetings of the qualifying body or its working groups
- Provision of ward level community profiles
- Help to provide a project plan/set a timetable for the work required
- Advice on survey methods
- Providing maps or advice on where to get these
- Arranging meetings, as appropriate, with the qualifying body
- Sharing information on key contacts and stakeholders, and best practice plan-making activity
- Making available venues and helping to arrange community engagement activities, to avoid consultation overload and maximise efficiencies of resources
- Providing training in facilitation/consultation techniques e.g. planning for real
- Signposting to other sources of help and assistance e.g. web sources for techniques.
- Making available data for the evidence base, such as housing need data, development viability considerations, environmental designations, and flood risk assessments
- Development management team could comment on how draft plan policies may be interpreted and used in practice
- Providing constructive comments on the emerging plan and other supporting documents (e.g. basic condition statement) prior to formal submission
- Providing advice on who needs to be consulted, especially in order to help the draft proposals meet the basic conditions (such as compatibility with EU obligations)
- Assistance in laying out and illustrating a plan
- Screening and / scoping to identify any need for an environmental assessment, sustainability appraisal or Habitat Regulations assessment.
- Setting out local strategic policies in the Local Plan
- Providing access to planning policy documents such as other strategies, socio-economic data, the statutory list and other heritage documents
- Setting out or signposting national policies which will need to be considered
- Providing advice on the legal requirements for neighbourhood planning under the Localism Act
