Parish plans
Parish plans give you an opportunity to get involved in planning in your town or village and surrounding countryside.
A parish plan is a document that tackles important issues that will influence your neighbourhood in the future.
This could be anything from ensuring building projects fit in with local character to supporting alternatives to private car use to improving the state of local parks.
The development of the plan will be led by the town or parish council but must take into account the views of the whole community. It is critical that it is in conformity with the areas Sustainable Community Strategy.
The final plan will identify key facilities and services, set out the problems that need to be tackled and show how distinctive character and features can be conserved.
It will also include an action plan for the area.
Why parish plans are important
Parish plans can be used to make sure local concerns and characteristics are taken into account before any planning decisions are made.
They can also influence the way local services are delivered.
Parish plans are an important tool that can be fed into other plans and strategies such as local development frameworks, where the needs of individual towns and villages and their surrounding countryside might not normally be adequately considered.
If you want to make the most effective use of your plan it is important to work with the local planning authority from the beginning.
If possible, press for the plan to be developed and submitted formally as an area action plan, as this carries the greatest weight as part of the statutory plan-making process.
If this is not possible then it is important to press the local planning authority to adopt the plan as a supplementary planning document that would still carry significant weight as a material consideration.
Even if the local planning authority decides not to formally recognise the Parish Plan it can still be used as evidence to inform the local development framework and to inform responses to planning applications as long as it has been subject to widespread and effective community involvement.