Alternatives to Neighbourhood Planning
It may be that some neighbourhood’s issues and needs can be appropriately tackled using planning tools or other approaches other than Neighbourhood Plans. This may be because such topic areas have been encountered in the past and central and or local government have developed effective policy mechanisms to deal with such points. The questions for communities to consider are the time and resource needed to develop a Neighbourhood Development Plan (NDP) as opposed to seeking to deploy another policy tool in its stead (or as well as a NDP).
Other approaches and alternatives to developing a neighbourhood plan include engaging in the Local Plan or production of a non-statutory Community Led Plan such as a Village Design Statement or a Parish Plan.
Advice and explanation of this question of tool selection and outlines of alternatives can be found in:
- RTPI (2011) Localism Bill: ‘Existing tools for Neighbourhood Planning’ Information note, May 2011: http://www.rtpi.org.uk/media/7334/Existing-Tools-for-Neighbourhood-Planning.pdf
- Parker, G. (2012) ‘Neighbourhood planning: precursors, lessons, and prospects’ – annex, Journal of Planning and Environment Law, 40: OP139: http://www.quadrilect.co.uk/Gavin%20Parker.pdf
- Planning Aid England advice notes – look at the statutory and non-statutory options: http://www.rtpi.org.uk/planning-aid/planning-explained/briefing-notes-and-guides/