Neighbourhood planning
What is Neighbourhood Planning?
Local communities can prepare their own Neighbourhood Plans. These enable residents and businesses to determine the future use of land in their area. They also allow them to influence new development.
Parish and Town Councils in Pendle are not required to prepare a Neighbourhood Plan for their area. But, if they want to, they must lead on preparation.
Neighbourhood Plans must generally conform to the strategic planning policies for the borough. They cannot propose less development than set out in the Pendle Local Plan.
Once completed a Neighbourhood Plan is subject to independent examination. If the Examiner recommends the Plan for approval, there will be a Referendum in the local community. This ensures that local people have the final say on whether the Plan should come into force.
If a majority of the votes are in favour of the Neighbourhood Plan, Pendle Council must adopt it. Planning officers will then use the policies in the Plan to decide planning applications in the neighbourhood area.
If you would like your area to have a Neighbourhood Plan, please contact your Parish or Town Council.
Neighbourhood Plans in Pendle
Section 61G of the Localism Act, says that the Council must publish a map showing any Neighbourhood Areas that have been approved. You can view or download a copy of the map for Pendle here.
Parish or Town Councils with adopted Neighbourhood Plans are:
- Barrowford Neighbourhood Plan
- Trawden Forest Neighbourhood Plan
- Kelbrook and Sough Neighbourhood Plan
- Colne Neighbourhood Plan
No other Parish or Town Councils in Pendle have chosen to prepare a Neighbourhood Plan.
Further Information
We have more information on funding for neighbourhood planning.
The following links take you to useful sources of advice on neighbourhood planning.
The Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) has a guide on how to Make a Neighbourhood Plan.
The Planning Portal website was set up by the UK government in 2002. It has pages dedicated to Neighbourhood Planning
Locality is the national network supporting community organisations. Their Neighbourhood Plans Roadmap is a step-by-step guide to the different stages of plan making.
The Neighbourhood Planning Independent Examiner Referral Service (NPIERS) has issued Guidance to Service Users and Examiners. This helps Parish Councils, Local Planning Authorities and Independent Examiners to understand the procedures for examining Neighbourhood Plans.