Local experiences of neighbourhood planning

The Coalition Government introduced the Localism Act 2011 as part of a wider reformation of the planning system. The Act introduced a range of measures including neighbourhood plans, which were designed to empower local people by enabling them to create a plan to shape development in their locality. Despite a growing body of research on the perceptions of local people towards neighbourhood planning, there has been little consideration of the perception and experience of local people following the adoption and use of the plan by the Local Planning Authority to determine planning applications. This is an important gap in current research since it is these latter stages which are most likely to reveal whether participant expectations have been met and whether the neighbourhood plan has led to real empowerment of local people. This dissertation fills the gap by conducting case studies in localities where the neighbourhood plan has been made and is being used by the Local Planning Authority to determine planning applications. It explores how local people who engaged in plan preparation consider the resultant plan to be of value and significance in the development process. It finds that the neighbourhood plans are judged against their propensity to bring forward desired development, their ability to provide protection from undesired development and their effectiveness as a vehicle to elevate the importance oflocal views within the planning process