This document provides guidance on neighbourhood planning, including key principles and considerations. It emphasizes that neighbourhood plans should: 1) Plan positively to support development and meet local needs, while conforming to strategic local plans and national policies. 2) Ensure the process is inclusive and transparent to gain community support. 3) Consider the perspective of multiple stakeholders, including independent examiners, voters, decision-makers, and developers, to create an effective plan that can be implemented. 4) Follow the formal regulations and timescales to successfully complete the neighbourhood planning process.

1. #neighbourhoodplanning
Golden Rules

2. #neighbourhoodplanning
A quick reminder of what neighbourhood planning is…
• POWER
to make planning policy or grant planning permission
• RESPONSIBILITY
to meet need and support growth
• INVESTMENT
through Community Infrastructure Levy*
* Communities with a neighbourhood plan in place receive 25% of CIL

3. First Golden Rule
PLAN
POSITIVELY

4. NPPF
• Planning must be a creative exercise in finding ways to
enhance and improve the places in which we live our
lives…
• Neighbourhoods should plan positively to support local
development, shaping and directing development in their
area…
• Every effort should be made objectively to identify and
then meet the housing, business and other development
needs of an area, and respond positively to wider
opportunities for growth…
• Neighbourhood plans should not promote less
development than set out in the Local Plan…

5. I commend Cringleford Parish Council for seeking to face up to
the difficult issue of meeting a considerable level of housing
need for a relatively small community: a further 1,200 dwellings
in a parish where 1,000 new dwellings are already being
constructed in Round House Park.
Report of the independent examiner

6. “I only know two English neighbourhoods
thoroughly, and in each, within a circle of
five miles, there is enough of interest and
beauty to last a reasonable man his life.
I believe this to be the case almost
throughout the country, but each has a
special attraction, and none can be richer
than the one I am speaking of and going
to introduce to you particularly…”
Tom Brown’s Schooldays

7. Thame
VISION
Thame must maintain
its character
as a real market town
• Continue to feel ‘compact’
• Continue to have a close relationship with open countryside around it
• Retain its markets
• Continue to act as a centre for the surrounding area, not just residents
• Remain attractive to residents and visitors

8. Thame
The ten-word Vision Statement is clear, short
and sharp. It provides a good introduction,
from which the more detailed objectives, and
then the policies to support and deliver the
vision, naturally flow.
Report of the Independent Examiner

9. Thame
POLICIES
Land allocated for 775 new homes: seven sites and three reserve sites.
Nine other policies on integration of windfall sites, design, provision of
new facilities, etc.
Other policies on Working and Shopping; Getting Around;
Community, Leisure and Well Being;
Environment, Sustainability and Design Quality
But remember: Upper Eden contains seven policies in total.
Neighbourhood planning is a flexible tool.

10. “Don’t start unless you have a clear idea of
why you need a neighbourhood plan and you
have a positive goal in mind.”
Jo Hawkins, Chairman
www.exeterstjamesforum.org

12. P.S. Be clear and succinct
Cringleford examiner’s report: “I commend the Draft NDP for being logical, clear
appropriately concise and intelligible to a reasonably intelligent lay reader with no
expertise in town and country planning.”
Rolleston examiner’s report: “The technique used in the Neighbourhood Plan to present
a grid demonstrating the link between plan objectives and each of the plan policies is a
fine example of best practice. These grids identify for every policy exactly which
objectives the policy is addressing.”
NPPF: “Planning should be genuinely plan-led, empowering local people to shape their
surroundings, with succinct local and neighbourhood plans setting out a positive vision
for the future of the area (…) Plans should provide a practical framework within which
decisions on planning applications can be made with a high degree of predictability and
efficiency.”

13. Second Golden Rule
PUT YOURSELF
IN THEIR SHOES

14. WHOSE SHOES? THE INDEPENDENT EXAMINER
“Does this plan meet the basic conditions?”

15. …regard to national policies and advice…
…general conformity with strategic policies…
…contribute to sustainable development…
…compatible with EU obligations…
Neighbourhood Development Orders have some additional basic conditions

16. The plan you submit for publicity and
examination must be accompanied by a
‘basic conditions statement’ explaining how
the plan meets the requirements.
You can find the basic conditions at
Page 38, Locality Roadmap, or
http://planningguidance.planningportal.gov.uk/
Or Schedule 10, Paragraph 8, Localism Act

17. WHOSE SHOES? THE VOTER
The referendum question
Do you want Thereborough District
Council to use the neighbourhood plan
for the Whereford area to help it decide
planning applications in the
neighbourhood area?

18. 90%
Yes
92%
Yes
76%
Yes
34%
turnout
21%
turnout
40%
turnout
96%
Yes
81%
Yes
74%
Yes
52%
turnout
17%
turnout
26%
turnout

19. A qualifying body should be inclusive and open in the preparation of its neighbourhood plan or Order
and ensure that the wider community
•is kept fully informed of what is being proposed
•is able to make their views known throughout the process
•has opportunities to be actively involved in shaping the emerging neighbourhood plan or Order
•is made aware of how their views have informed the draft neighbourhood plan or Order.
http://planningguidance.planningportal.gov.uk/
Where a qualifying body submits a plan proposal to the local planning authority, it must include a
consultation statement, which
•(a) contains details of the persons and bodies who were consulted about the proposed
neighbourhood development plan
•(b) explains how they were consulted
•(c) summarises the main issues and concerns raised by the persons consulted and
•(d) describes how these issues and concerns have been considered and, where relevant, addressed
in the proposed neighbourhood development plan.
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2012/637/contents/made

20. WHOSE SHOES?
THE DECISION MAKER

22. WHOSE SHOES?
THE DEVELOPER

23. Pursuing sustainable development requires careful attention to
viability and costs in plan-making and decision-taking. Plans
should be deliverable.
Therefore, the sites and the scale of development identified in the
plan should not be subject to such a scale of obligations and
policy burdens that their ability to be developed viably is
threatened.
To ensure viability, the costs of any requirements likely to be
applied to development, such as requirements for affordable
housing, standards, infrastructure contributions or other
requirements should, when taking account of the normal cost
of development and mitigation, provide competitive returns to a
willing land owner and willing developer to enable the
development to be deliverable.
National Planning Policy Framework

25. Third Golden Rule
TO GET A PLAN…
…GET A PLAN

26. Regulations Timescale
Designation of neighbourhood
area/forum
6 weeks
Pre-submission consultation
6 weeks
Publicity period
6 weeks
Examination
Referendum
28 working days
(56 for a business referendum)

27. PLANNING
APPLICATION