Neighbourhood Planning guidance

Neighbourhood planning gives local communities the opportunity to plan for their local areas and decide what the place where you live should look like and how it should develop and grow in the future. 

Neighbourhood planning can be used to:

• choose where new homes, shops and offices should be built
• have a say on what those new buildings should look like
• influence the design and functionality of open spaces around where you live, and
• grant planning permission for the new buildings your community wants to see go ahead

Neighbourhood planning cannot be used to block the building of the homes and businesses considered to be necessary to meet the borough's current and future needs.  However, you can use it to influence the type, design, location and mix of new development.

There are three types of neighbourhood planning your community may wish to do:

• Neighbourhood Plan - establish your vision and general planning policies and proposals for the future development and use of different plots of land in your local community area.
  • a neighbourhood plan will form part of the borough's statutory local development plan against which all planning applications and development proposals will be decided.
  • a neighbourhood plan could include neighbourhood development orders and community right to build orders.
• Neighbourhood Development Order - allows you to grant planning permission for certain types of development that you want to see go ahead in your community area.
• Community Right to Build Order - allows you to grant planning permission for the local community to build small-scale housing developments, community facilities or shops.

Neighbourhood Planning is undertaken by local community groups, not the council, although we can provide some guidance and technical assistance.

The Government has also funded the following independent organisations to help advise and support you, and to provide some financial assistance to local communities interested in doing neighbourhood planning:

• Locality (The Building Community Consortium)
• Planning Aid (part of the Royal Town Planning Institute)

Preparing a Neighbourhood Plan

Neighbourhood Plans can only be prepared by a "Neighbourhood Forum" in areas like South Tyneside without parishes.

Neighbourhood Forums must:

• apply to the Council to be designated
• have at least 21 members, who live, work, or are a Councillor in the area
• have a written constitution 

On average, preparing a Neighbourhood Plan takes about two years.

Conditions of a Neighbourhood Plan

Neighbourhood Planning does not mean that communities can plan how and what they like.

Neighbourhood Plans will have to meet a number of conditions:

• They must have regard to national planning policy;
• They must be in general conformity with the strategic policies contained within the local plan; and
• They must be compatible with EU obligations and human rights requirements.

The Council's Role

The Council has a duty to provide technical advice and practical support to those producing a Neighbourhood Plan. However, in view of current limits on our resources constraints, the level of support may be constrained at times.

The Council also has to: 

• Agree the composition of, and formally designate, neighbourhood forums;
• Agree the boundary of the area to be covered by a Neighbourhood Plan;
• Organise the check by an independent examiner into a Neighbourhood Plan before it can be voted on in a local referendum;
• Organise the referendums; the plan will need to get majority support;
• Adopt the Neighbourhood Plan and bring it into force.