Community Assets No 11 - Neighbourhood Planning

How does a resident get involved in the planning of his/her area? How does a business get involved the planning of their area? To me the involvement  has always seemed hit-and-miss - that is until quite recently. I remember Mrs Rosencrantz being utterly bewildered by a CPO scheme. All the houses around her were being vacated and the occupiers being sent to tower blocks,  new towns, etc. The vacanted houses were being "re-occupied" for very short periods, ie hours or minutes. To stop the occupations I arranged for the floor boards to be removed. Some weeks later Mrs R was still worrried - she said that the floor boards had been replace by mattresses and the occupations continued!

The site eventually became the cleared gound for a brand new school.  It was built and as far as I know it is still there but if it is as the original, it must be due for a refurbishment or rebuilding. Going back to the questions? Will the Localism Act 2011 make a difference to the planning of local areas?

Part 6 Chapter 3 of the Localism Act 2011 comprises six sections (ss 116 - 121) over two or so pages - a doddle. However the references to schedules abound and a quick looking at schedules 9, 10, 11, and 12 seems to indicate that the basics of plan-making and special development controls, etc in the big planning world will be applied to the little planning world (of neighbourhoods)! This is done by inserting sections and schedules into the former.

Of course, most of us will not need to go into the detail of the legislation but our professional advisors who have not had the opportunity to follow the passage of the Bill in detail will spend some evening burning the candles to get into, of instance, the sets of compensation provisions applying to local development orders. Of course, I have chosen a topic which is, conceivably light-years away. More pressing is the prospect of local residents realising the potential that the  2011 Act gives them to get involved and act accordingly so as to initiate their neighbourhood's plan.