About neighbourhood planning

Neighbourhood planning is optional, not compulsory. There is no requirement for any community, parish or town council to undertake work on neighbourhood planning if they don’t want to. Where they choose to, local people can draw up either a plan, or a development order, or both.

Neighbourhood Plans: Parish and town councils or neighbourhood forums (in unparished areas) can produce neighbourhood plans for their local areas, putting in place a strategy and policies for the future development of the area.

Neighbourhood Development Orders: parish/town councils or neighbourhood forums can grant planning permission for certain kinds of development within a specified area.

Community Right to Build Order: A community right to build order is a special kind of neighbourhood development order, granting planning permission for small, community development schemes, such as housing or new community facilities.

Each made neighbourhood plan has its own webpage, where draft and plans in their early stages can be viewed.

Benefits of producing a neighbourhood plan:

• Community Led – neighbourhood plans are led by authorised community organisations known as qualifying bodies rather than the borough council.
• Influence – made neighbourhood plans form part of the statutory development plan which has weight in the planning process, including the determination of planning applications.
• Relevance – policies are locally-specific and allows the local community to specify what they expect from development.
• Allocations – neighbourhood plans allow the community to develop criteria and methodology to choose sites to be allocated for different kinds of development. There is the option to identify and designate green spaces valued by the community as Local Green Space, which should be protected from inappropriate development.

Issues to consider:

• Scope of the plan – plans can range in complexity.
• Legislation – plans must comply with the ‘Basic Conditions’.
• Existing policy – there is no need to repeat Local Plan policies however plans can address new policy areas not included in existing policy.
• Skills and time – the production of a neighbourhood plan will require a range of skills, depending on the scope and complexity of the plan. Neighbourhood plans are prepared by volunteers.

Process of producing a neighbourhood plan:

• The creation of a neighbourhood plan must follow a formal process.
• Town/Parish Councils can propose a plan and in non-parished areas a neighbourhood forum can be established.
• Neighbourhood plans are subject to two formal consultations, an independent examination and referendum before they can be adopted.

A Neighbourhood Planning Protocol (July 2026) has been developed to provide local communities with more certainty on the level of work that is likely to be involved in producing a neighbourhood plan, provide more detail on the process in terms of the requirements of the regulations and guidance and also includes additional information on the steps that would aid the production of a plan.

Neighbourhood Planning Protocol(PDF) [919 kb]

A guidance note for parishes with a made neighbourhood plan who are considering updating their neighbourhood plan alongside the Local Plan Update.

Guidance Note - Updating Made Neighbourhood Plans(PDF) [269 kb]

Engaging the Community in Neighbourhood Planning is a document designed to support neighbourhood planning groups in the consultation process. It also contains an appendix with possible survey questions, which you may want to use when gathering information from the local community. You can view the document below.

Guide to engaging the community in neighbourhood planning(PDF) [716 kb]

You should also check whether there has been any work on a community plan in your local area, as a useful source of information. Check the Community Planning pages of the website for further details.

The borough council is required to support groups through the process of preparing neighbourhood plans.

Our Neighbourhood Planning Grant Scheme provides funding of up to £10,000 per eligible neighbourhood plan to support town and parish councils across the borough in the production of a neighbourhood plan .

The Government has prepared:

• Guidance for Neighbourhood Planning (GOV.UK)
• Toolkits for Neighbourhood Planning (GOV.UK)
• Formal regulations - The Neighbourhood Planning (General) Regulations 2012

Where there is a Parish or Town Council, they are responsible for taking the lead in the preparation of a Neighbourhood Plan. In areas without a Parish or Town Council, a group of at least 21 people must be formed and apply to the Local Planning Authority to be designated as a Neighbourhood Forum.

It is also necessary for all groups (whether led by a Parish/Town Council or Neighbourhood Forum) to apply to the Local Planning Authority (BDBC) to designate a Neighbourhood Area for the purposes of producing a neighbourhood plan, neighbourhood development order or community right to build order.

The government introduced changes to the neighbourhood planning regulations that came into effect on the 9 February 2015 to speed up the determination of neighbourhood area applications. The Borough Council will now have to determine a valid neighbourhood area application that:

• follows a parish boundary within eight weeks of receiving the application.
• covers more than one local planning authority area within 20 weeks of receiving the application (even if the application area follows a parish boundary).
• for all other neighbourhood area applications (such as neighbourhood forums) within 13 weeks of receiving the application.

The above timescales will commence from the publication of the neighbourhood area application by the Local Planning Authority. In addition, the minimum period for consultation on neighbourhood area applications that follow a parish boundary has now been reduced from six to four weeks in order to meet the revised timescales.

Neighbourhood Area Application form(PDF) [185 kb]

Neighbourhood Forum Application form(PDF) [160 kb]