Guidance and help for community plans

We support and encourage all communities to get involved in shaping their local areas, one way this can be done is by developing a community plan.

A community plan sets out how residents, in both rural parishes and in urban areas would like to see their local area change in the future. It sets out:

a long term vision for the community, developed by the community - describing the sort of place it would wish to be and look like
the important issues to tackle, that reflect the needs of that particular community
short term goals and actions

Reasons to have a community plan

Community plans can:

influence local councils and service providers by providing evidence of the type of things that people want and see as important in their communities
bring the community together and generate community spirit and actions
provide clear evidence of community aspirations and priorities
provide a plan for the future based on wider community involvement that service providers can use to shape their services to meet local need
help access funding streams for projects - as they can provide strong evidence of need to support grant applications
encourage partnership working by highlighting projects that need help from the community itself or from external agencies

Help available

The Connected Communities Team can lead you through the process helping you develop a robust and credible community plan. The officer will provide guidance on best practices and local experience.

In a parish area the process is usually started by the parish council. In urban areas resident groups can work with their local councillors and the Connected Communities Team to develop a plan.

Contact the Connected Communities Team

What is involved

There are several steps to work through to ensure that any plan is based on the needs and views of the future from the whole community. These include:

setting up a steering group
consulting with the community to get views from as many people as possible
identifying priorities
developing an action plan that involves the local community and service providers

Other community plans

Neighbourhood Plans

Introduced by the Localism Act 2011, Neighbourhood planning is a way for communities to be involved in land-use planning decisions in their area. They enable local communities to have more say in where new houses, businesses, shops and community facilities should go in their local area and will allocate sites for development. They may also include more detailed planning policies for example to define how new development should look.

For more information visit our Neighbourhood Plans webpage

Village Design Statements (VDS)

A practical tool to help influence decisions on design and development. They provide a clear statement of the character of a particular village or town against which planning applications may be assessed.

For more information visit our Village Design Statements webpage

Choosing the right plan

Knowing what the local community wants to achieve, and a clear vision for the future of the community is a good starting point for choosing a plan.

Community plans have a wider remit and seek to tackle a range of social, economic and environmental issues.
Neighbourhood Plans have a more regulated process, focus on planning issues.
It may be that a combination of the plans is the best approach