Neighbourhood Planning and Local Plans : where are we and what have we learned so far? A view from the South West

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1 Neighbourhood Planning and Local Plans : where are we and what have we learned so far? A view from the South West Background paper for the RTPI SW Conference Neighbourhood Planning and Local Plans working out the relationship, Taunton, 31 January Introduction The very new concept of Neighbourhood Planning [NP], born out of the Coalition Government s Localism agenda, has now joined the not so new system of Core Strategies / Local Plans as part of the statutory development plan in England. The intention is that these two levels of policy should be closely integrated. This paper looks briefly at NP progress nationally and in the South West in particular, before going on to look at emerging experience; plan typology ; and emerging issues. It concludes by looking at what is arguably the main issue to date the relationship between NP s and their respective, overarching, Core Strategies / Local Plans, taking the South West as an example. Neighbourhood Plans, the latest position nationally According to DCLG, by the end of 2013, across England, Local Planning Authorities had received 858 applications for Neighbourhood Plan Area Designations, resulting in over 630 NP area designations. Out of these, 54 Draft NP s had been published, of which 25 had been submitted for Independent Examination, of which 9 had successfully passed the Examination stage[ with amendments], of which 6 had received a yes in a local Referendum and had subsequently been made [ adopted by their respective Local Planning Authorities ]. Over half of England s 353 relevant authorities had received at least one application for designation, with 18 each receiving 10 or more. Over the year, the level of NP activity increased significantly, with only just under 200 NP area designations confirmed by the start of By May, that had risen to 323, with 27 Draft NP s published. A Government impatient to see the fruits of planning reform The Government has applauded progress in what Planning Minister Nick Boles called in July, the future of planning, whilst at the same time showing impatience at the speed with which NP s are being put in place just 6 of them almost two years after the Neighbourhood Planning ( General) Regulations 2012 were published [ March 2012] and over two years on from the enabling Localism Act, [November 2011]. Speaking at the TCPA Annual Conference in November 2013, Boles called for a faster, easier Neighbourhood Planning regime, suggesting that some bits of the process were unnecessary or over-long and that the full level of complexity was not suitable in every case. There seems little doubt that the Regulations have been off-putting for many communities, who have sought other ways to achieve their particular local aspirations. The RTPI South West was not the only voice suggesting, back in 2012, that their complexity would pose a challenge, both to community groups and to local planning authorities charged with supporting the process at a time when their resources were being reduced. The DCLG s Supporting Communities in Neighbourhood Planning programme, in which Planning Aid England has been playing a major role, has been invaluable in providing direct professional support and financial assistance to NP groups, but this has all had to be spread very thinly and has struggled to cope with demand. Neighbourhood Plans in the South West As was the case more than half a decade ago with the emergence of the first successfully adopted Core Strategies [ South Hams, December 2006 ; Plymouth, April 2007; Mid Devon, July 2007 ; Dartmoor NPA, April 2008 ], the South West has, once again, been in the van as far as Neighbourhood Plans are concerned. The region has featured prominently in the Government s NP Frontrunners programme [ announced in 5 waves between April 2011 and March 2012 ], with 37 of the 233 trial plan areas across England, including 4 of the 17 in the first wave Dawlish ; Cerne Valley ; Lockleaze ( Bristol); and Lynton & Lynmouth. The region saw the very first informal pilot NP Examination in Dawlish, in April 2012, held by Prof Chris Balch, of Plymouth University and of the 9 NP s which have so far successfully passed the Examination stage, the two South West representatives Exeter St James and LynPlan [Lynton & Lynmouth ], were among the first to do so, in February 1

2 and August 2013 respectively, and both have now been made, following local Referenda[see below]. By the end of the year, 133 NP areas had been designated within the South West, with Cornwall and Wiltshire [ both new Unitary Authorities] clearly leading the way with 24 and 16 areas respectively. Only 9 of the 39 relevant authorities in the region still had no recorded designation.[ See my November 2013 Update Report for the details ] The Neighbourhood Plan Examinations to date By the end of 2013, progress with the examined Plans was as follows : Dawlish Parish NP ( Teignbridge DC) Informal, pilot. Examiner Chris Balch. Hearing Report May Found unsound for a number of reasons, including the lack of an adopted Local Plan and lack of justification for new homes proposed, but praised for consultation process and level of consensus achieved. Seen as a learning exercise, both for the new system overall and for the Teignbridge planners.[ See my July 2012 Update Report] Upper Eden Development Plan (Eden DC) 17 parishes, large, sparsely populated rural area. John Glester Report December Referendum Yes! Plan made Thame ( South Oxfordshire DC) Town Plan with major housing land allocations. Nigel McGurk.Hearing Report, February 2013 Referendum Yes! Plan made. First application based on the Plan now submitted. St James,Exeter ( Exeter City C) Ward-based urban plan. Student housing issues Referendum Yes! May Plan made July Graham Self Report, February LynPlan ( Lynton & Lynmouth NP) ( Exmoor NPA) A first wave Frontrunner & one of DEFRA s rural frontrunner case studies. Focus on second/holiday homes issue. Graham Self Report, August 2013 Approved with significant recommended changes to policy wording. Referendum Yes! November Plan made December Norland ( LB Kensington & Chelsea ) The pioneer London NP, small urban area, with focus on design, conservation and retention of community uses. David Chetwyn Report, August 2013 Referendum Yes! December Plan made. Tattenhall & District ( Cheshire West & Chester C ) Area under significant development pressure. Nigel McGurk Hearing Report, August 2013 Legal Challenge by 3 national housebuilders! Referendum Yes! [ 52% turnout!] October Plan now made. Rolleston-on-Dove ( East Staffs Borough Council) Christopher Collinson Report, October 2013 Big Plan for Broughton Astley ( Harborough DC ) Nigel McGurk Hearing Report, October 2013 Legal challenge by national housebuilder ( subsequently withdrawn) Referendum Yes! January Cringleford ( South Norfolk DC ) Timothy Jones Hearing Report, November 2013 Referendum due 24 January All 9 formal Examination reports to date have recommended moving to the local Referendum stage, though most have made recommendations for amendments. 4 of the Examinations have involved a public hearing, whilst another [ LynPlan], involved a special meeting between the Examiner and representatives of the Town Council and Exmoor NPA. All 3 of Nigel McGurk s Examinations have involved a hearing. Each of the reports has covered the same ground in terms of setting the NP context, addressing the 4 basic conditions, and explaining the choice of recommendations open to the Examiner, but they have varied in length from just 12 pages [Norland] to 41 pages [Cringleford ].Some reports refer to informal visits to the NP area by the Examiner. The recurring themes have been the need for policies to be written clearly and concisely ; the need for policies to be supported by a robust but proportionate evidence base ; and the need to demonstrate that the Plan can be delivered [ and over what timescale]. An emerging typology of Neighbourhood Plans? There is no prescriptive checklist about what form a NP should take or what subjects it should address. The Government guidance is very broad-brush on the matter [ somewhat in contrast to the prescriptive production process, set out in the Regulations!].Policies should enable the delivery of sustainable development in accordance with the policies in the NPPF and the Plan should positively support local development, shaping and directing development in the 2

3 neighbourhood area of a kind that is outside the strategic elements of the [relevant] Local Plan. Whilst NP s cannot be used to prevent development, as such, they can be used, in certain circumstances, to protect local features such as green space. Essentially, the approach taken can reflect the issues being faced in a particular area and the particular community ambitions- eg. in the LynPlan, a need to limit the further growth of second/holiday homes and the use of local community champions. The initiative is still in its very early days, but already there appears to be a pattern emerging. As reported in the recent DEFRA commissioned study of rural Frontrunners, April 2013, DCLG has identified six different types of NP, based on an analysis of all 233 national Frontrunners [ Neighbourhood Planning The rural frontrunners : research and case studies Table 1 page 9 ] : Mini local plans Comprehensive coverage of issues/uses + allocation of development sites. Policy & allocation plans Covering a narrow range of issues and sites. Theme specific. Single policy documents Covering a single policy issues eg. protection of green space. Policy plans Covering a broad range of issues, but no site allocations. Seen to contribute to /augment Local Plans. Similar to Parish Plans [?] Neighbourhood Development Order ( minor development) Addressing minor development, such as house extensions and windows, or minor development in business parks, or minor changes of use [?] in town centres. Neighbourhood Development Order (site specific) Covering development of a particular site, such as a small housing scheme under Community Right to Build. Emerging issues Daunting Regulations As already referred to above, the 2012 Neighbourhood Planning Regulations could be seen to be daunting and overcomplex even by planning professionals. They come in 9 parts, plus 3 Schedules and only really engage with the reader in the Explanatory Note right at the end, though this does not form part of the Regulations and itself comes with no less than 37 footnotes! Whilst accepting that care needs to be taken in the preparation of a policy document which could eventually become a statutory plan, many people have already suggested that local community aspirations can be met in other, less prescriptive ways. Many of the South West s planning authorities, for example, whilst setting out on their websites [ as they are legally required to do] the opportunities provided by this new level of statutory development planning, are also advising their parishes and other communities, to think carefully about other mechanisms available [ village plans, design statements etc] before launching into NP work. In addition, many Councils are clearly concerned about their ability to support all the NP initiatives which might emerge in their area. Time taken to get NP s in place As also referred to above, Ministers are also starting to share similar concerns, though driven more in their case by the time it has already taken to get just a handful of Plans in place. At the launch of the initiative, it would arguably have been very difficult to estimate how long it might take to get the average NP in place, but it has not, so far proved to be a quick process. To take a South West example St James, Exeter. Here, even with the right conditions of local commitment and appropriate resources, including consultancy and local volunteer professionals, in place, it has taken just under three years to complete the process. Modest Government financial support To its credit, DCLG realised from the outset that seed corn funding would be needed to get the NP programme going. Since the initial, very modest, funding of qualifying Frontrunner groups [with the money being entrusted only to the respective planning authorities, on their behalf!], the Department has been drip-feeding equally modest additional support to authorities, triggered by particular stages of plan progress. In addition, the Government s Supporting Communities in Neighbourhood Planning programme, co-ordinated by Locality and involving Planning Aid England (PAE) and number of other organisations, has to date provided Direct Financial Support and Grant Support to NP work. The former has provided 229 NP groups [ 29 of which are in the South West ] with expert advice tailored to 3

4 individual needs, such as running workshops, facilitating discussions and giving presentations. By Autumn 2013, however, it had become clear that demand was exceeding delivery capacity, so that applications for support had to be limited, until February 2014, to groups already at a reasonably advanced stage with their plans. Grant Support, available in addition to the Direct Support, has so far provided grants of up to 7,000 each to some 392 groups [ 66 of them in the South West ] with 2,265,612 in total allocated. When all of this is seen in the context of the English planning system overall, it is a tiny resource, which has had to be backed up by other fund-raising on the part of the NP groups themselves. A rural focus Concern has been expressed in some quarters that the majority of NP s coming forward are in rural areas. This surely should have been anticipated, since it is in these areas where most of the parish councils are ; where there are local communities already mobilised about a range of issues; and where there is a long history of action to prevent development [ or at least, development of the wrong kind!] This rural emphasis is particularly marked in the South West, where the major urban areas have, so far, seen very limited NP activity eg. Bristol, 5 NP area designations ; Plymouth, 1 ; Exeter, 1; Swindon 4 ; Poole 2; Bournemouth none. On the other hand, in just a few major urban areas elsewhere, there has been significant activity eg. Leeds City, 25 ; City of Westminster, 24. It would seem that it is the mainly Rural Unitaries that are leading the way, both in the South West and elsewhere eg. Cornwall., 24 ; Wiltshire, 16 and Herefordshire, 67. Local communities in urban areas have not proved to be as readily identifiable as qualifying Neighbourhood Forums, particularly where these areas are non-parished, such as Bath. NP s as examples of local democracy in action? NP s are all about introducing more localism to the process of development plan policy making. At the same time, the Regulations have had to be framed in such a way as to ensure that a legitimate local community body has been doing the work ; that the process of plan-making and adoption has been transparent and accountable ; and that an appropriate local constituency [ literally] has voiced its approval. In some places, relationships between existing, elected, community representatives at the district/borough/unitary council level, have been strained and whilst the Government claims that, so far, NP Referendum turnouts, have been, on average, as good as in local elections, there has been a big range 52% at the top, down to just 21% [ St James, Exeter] and 17% [ Lyn Plan]. Legal challenges It was probably only a matter of time before the legal challenges to NP work began. In October 2013, the planned Referendum on the Tattenhall Plan was the subject of an injunction from a group of three national housebuilders, on the grounds that the proposed plan was flawed on technical grounds and on the impartiality of the Examiner. Things have been resolved and the Plan now made. The second challenge has concerned the Broughton Astley Plan, which was the subject of a judicial review pre-action protocol letter from a major developer to the local authority in November, involving eight grounds of challenge. This has also now been withdrawn, and, as noted above, the Referendum has gone ahead. More of the same can probably be expected and as consultant, Chris Bowden, is quoted as saying [ Planning 17 January2014 p. 11] Neighbourhood planning is off developers radars until it forms a stumbling block, and then they start throwing all their legal weight at it. Neighbourhood Planning and Local Plans the relationship The overriding issue to date is the emerging relationship between the strategic level of development plan policy [ Core Strategy / Local Plan ] and the new very local level Neighbourhood Plan. The criteria against which these two kinds of plan are different. In particular, the former has to be tested against four separate soundness criteria.the examination of a NP does not involve consideration of either its soundness or quality Here the testing is against four basic conditions. One of these, which a NP plan has to meet is that it is in general conformity with the strategic policies of the [relevant] development plan ie. Core Strategy /Local Plan. The fact that there is still no up-to-date Local Plan in many local authority areas, has immediately emerged as a particular issue, and nowhere more so than in the South West. By the Autumn of 2013, only 14 of the region s 39 relevant authorities had such a plan in place. It has not, however significantly held up NP progress. 4

5 It was originally assumed, as in the case of the Dawlish Examination, that the lack of a Local Plan would prevent the completion of the NP process through to its being made as part of the development plan for the area. However, the NPPF now makes clear [ paras 185 & 216] that such plans do not have to wait for the adoption of their strategic framework and there have been many examples since then of work on a particular NP being progressed despite the lack of a framework provided by strategic policies. In most such cases, these policies are at are least emerging [ with a new Core Strategy or Local Plan at the published draft stage at least ] and many NP groups have been happy to take the opportunity to use their work to influence these strategic policies. This is a situation which a planning authority could find either helpful or something of a problem, depending on particular local circumstances! In the South West, the St.James, Exeter Plan has been completed in the context of an Exeter City Core Strategy adopted in February 2012, whereas the LynPlan has been completed and made in advance of the emerging Exmoor Local Plan. Another issue to emerge relates to the fourth basic condition that a NP must be compatible with European Union Law and Human Rights obligations. In practice, these are the EU SEA, SA and Habitats Regulations Assessment and Equalities Impact Assessment. These are, on paper, significant requirements for a small plan at a very local level, and what still appears to be in need of testing is whether or not the relevant strategic policy framework can be deemed to have covered these and how significant any proposals in a NP have to be before they have to tested directly. A growing body of advice and guidance From the DCLG The March 2012 Regulations, now supported by NP Government Webpages and a regular Bulletin on progress, by the NP Team, now in its 8 th Edition. Planning Aid England Up Front NP News e-bulletins. Forum for NP [ set up October 2013] Planning Camps [ with Locality & Eden Project ] NP Planning Champions contacts. Locality Working with PAE + others on the Government s Supporting Communities in NP Programme. Website [ my community rights!] with lots of information about applying for support + roadmap + case studies British Property Federation Website on Business NP Areas, launched November 2013, to support business involvement in the process [ now 11 of these areas designated, with Central Milton Keynes the most advanced ] Conclusion Most of the issues surrounding Core Strategies/Local Plans are now well-known, even though they have not all, as yet, been successfully addressed. The arrival of the statutory NP has arguably added to these issues, but has also raised NP-specific ones. The NP process is gathering momentum, but output so far is tiny. It is thus probably too early to draw many conclusions about things such as the relationship between the two levels of plan, especially as the Government is still wishing to make adjustments to the NP system. Geoff Walker RTPI SW Policy Project Officer January 2014 SWPolicy@rtpi.org.uk 5