Planning Aid England Neighbourhood Planning: Neighbourhood Level Observations and Issues Chris Anderson Neighbourhood Planning Advisor

Planning Aid Direct web resource is free to use and provides: Answers to questions people often ask about planning Clear, simple explanations of how the planning system works Signposting on where to go next Advice Service: professional planners can provide a limited amount of free, general, planning advice via or phone Supporting Communities in Neighbourhood Planning Programme up to 2015 Helping Parishes and Forums that have a formally designated area to prepare themselves and a Neighbourhood Plan for the area Non-Neighbourhood Planning Volunteering Local Plan consultation Training on the Planning Process to Parish Councillors

Allendale (Northumberland) (Appointing an Examiner) Alnwick and Denwick (Just finished statutory consultation on draft plan) Morpeth (Consulting on draft plan in Dec 2014) Hartlepool Rural (Just finished aims and objectives consultation and developing policy) Tarset and Greystead (Northumberland) (Writing and developing draft plan for health check Dec 2014) Ponteland (Northumberland) (Looking to produce a version of a draft plan for review to be health checked for next steps) Sedgefield (Durham) (Submitted their most up to date document for an NPIERS health check via Planning Aid England) Witton Gilbert (Durham) (Looking to consult with the community on initial ideas and issues in Jan 2015) Egglescliffe and Eaglescliffe (Stockton) (Looking to undertake stage 1 questionnaire and consultation in Dec/Jan Monkhesleden (Durham) (Launch/gathering issues/ build a campaign) Marton West – Forum (Middlesbrough) (Working with LPA to determine planning and non-planning issues)

Middleton-st-George (Darlington) (Helping the group get back on the right track in terms of process) Shotton (Durham) RETIRED WITH BROKEN CHAIN Planning Consultant also supporting group No Planning Consultant In need of a Planning Mechanic (PAE Vol) Key The state of play with Planning Aid England groups in the north east

Process People Politics Planning Price Place Preparation Push Practice Neighbourhood Planning Observations and Issues – 9 P’s to consider

Push We don’t want any new big developments Were under attack from developers We disagree with the Local Plan We want to influence change We want better development and local policy

Process Does everybody involved understand it? Which activities can the group do and cant do? Are we pausing to check we are following the process? Are we informing the wider community of where we are at? Are we being realistic about the time it will take to carry out the process?

Preparation Why are we doing a Neighbourhood Plan? Do we have the right skills on board? What ground work have we done? Have we prepared a project plan? What is Plan B?

Place What was our place like? What is our place like? What should our place be like? Will a Neighbourhood Plan suit our place? Does our place need something else?

People Who are the NDP group? Who are the wider Neighbourhood? Are we a 10 people plan? We are not Planners We know what we want as a Neighbourhood is that enough?

Politics Are there Intra- group Politics? Is the plan Councillor led? Next door have a plan so we want one Doesn’t matter what we say anyway Were busy fighting other battles

Price Give us a price on writing our plan for us If we get involved as an LPA what's the cost? This is a lot of money We’re going to raise the Parish precept What other funding can we get hold of?

Planning The Planning system doesn’t wait for you Remember you are a plan making body making a land use plan NDPs are gaining weight in decision making Should we wait for the up to date Local Plan? We can produce this up to a point ourselves

Practice Been there, done that, wore the T-shirt Visit a successful NDP/LPA Recognise the Good and not so good We are all still learning Try a new approach

Process People Politics Planning Price Place Preparation Push Practice Neighbourhood Planning – Mapping out Support with your LPA…

Paving the way for the Forum Explaining the respective roles of Planning Aid, Planning Advice Plus, the Council and the Forum Explaining procedural steps in the Neighbourhood Planning process Starting to preparing a Project Plan Discussing & agreeing a strategy for supporting the group Reaching agreement about what we'll be discussing with the Council i.e. – assistance/resourcing, timescales, nature of support (e.g. – getting named officer(s) to service the Forum sub-committee), structure/format/frequency of liaison meetings Preparing the way for a successful neighbourhood plan Paving the way for the Local Planning Authority(LPA) Important preliminary step before bringing together the Forum & Council officers Explaining the respective roles/input of Planning Aid and Planning Advice Plus Initial scene-setting and 'easing the Council in' - Council to understand what is expected of them, timescales and processes (merit in formalising through service level agreement) Introducing the LPA to the Forums Project Plan Agreeing scope of first or next meeting with the Forum Bringing together the Working Group and the LPA Planning Aid and Planning Advice Plus act as “broker” to bring LPA on board with community and vice versa if needed. A review of the project plan for the neighbourhood plan process Action Planning – joint exercise with the Forum, PAE, PAP and LPA to agree the Project Plan and discuss next actions PAE and the Forum PAE and LPAPAE, LPA and the Forum PAE and PAP Inception MTG All groups ready to embark on NDP 3 staged approach to begin your NDP alongside your LPA effectively using a Project Plan

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