In more detail
The Localism Act says neighbourhood planning must be led by a local group called a ‘designated body’. If you live in a place with a parish council (also called a community council or a town council), then the parish council is the designated body for your area.
Most urban neighbourhoods, however, do not have parish or community council. In places where there is no parish or community council, the designated body for neighbourhood planning is called a neighbourhood forum.
There are rules about what a neighbourhood forum must be to qualify as a designated body for neighbourhood planning. A body must meet these rules if it wants to lead on neighbourhood planning. It must:
- have at least 21 people as members (they have to be individuals, not other groups or organisations)
- reflect the character and diversity of the area (think about the mix of women and men who are members; the ages of members; their ethnicity; the part of the neighbourhood they live or work in; faith groups; housing tenure (whether people are homeowners or tenants etc)
- show that it is inclusive and that it has tried to include at least one resident, one person who works in the area and one local councilor.
This last requirement might look at bit odd – surely you would want more than one resident or local business-owner or worker? Bear in mind that some neighbourhood plans might be for areas that have few residents (like a large industrial estate for example) or few businesses (eg a large housing estate). What the law is saying is that a neighbourhood forum should include a mix of people who live in the place; work or run businesses in the place; and represent the place.
Existing Forums
Note, that these rules apply to pre-existing groups as well as to a forum set up just for the prupose of neighbourhood planning. So, even if your area already has a group called a neighbourhood forum, if that group doesn’t meet the requirements above, you will either have to change the existing group or set up a new one in order to lead on neighbourhood planning.
For example, in the Jewellery Quarter area of Birmingham, there was already a Neighbourhood Forum set up by local residents which acted a bit like a large residents’ association. The Jewellery Quarter Neighbourhood Forum used to look at and comment on planning applications for the neighbourhood. It decided it wanted to see a neighbourhood plan for the Jewellery Quarter. Because the existing Neighbourhood Forum was a resident-only body, however, it did not meet the requirements. It joined with representatives of business in the area and with local councilors to set up a new body to lead the neighbourhood planning. They called it the Neighbourhood Planning Forum to distinguish from the resident-led Neighbourhood Forum.
Having Set up a Neighbourhood Forum
Once your Neighbourhood Planning Forum has been recognized by the local planning authority, they have a duty to support it – you can find out more from mycommunity.org Some local authorities have been more supportive than others. If you run into problems, seek advice from Locality or through the Neighbourhood Planning Network.
Neighbourhood planning sets minimum requirements to be met by your local lead body. There is no reason why you can’t aim higher. You can set up a community or town council for your neighbourhood. You can use a Neighbourhood Planning Forum to look at wider issues affecting the neighbourhood that aren’t just to do with land use.
| Key Facts:
The law says that neighbourhood planning must be led by a parish council if there is one in the area. If there isn't, it must be led by a neighbourhood forum. To qualify to lead neighbourhood planning a neighbourhood forum must have at least 21 members who reflect the range of communities in the area and they must include representatives of business and the local public sector. |
Page Links from here
In this toolkit see:
Designated Bodies
OR you can use the navigation menu above right to look at other parts of the toolkit.
BIRMINGHAM COMMUNITY PLANNING TOOLKIT DEFINITION SHEET This sheet may be reproduced in paper or electromic or any other form but please mention it was made by Chamberlain Forum Limited for Birmingham City Council supported by Department for Communities and Local Government.
| created: 2016-06-11 12:59:29 | by: admin | status: f published |