Neighbourhood Planning: communities, networks and governance

Nick Gallent, Steve Robinson (2012), Policy Press

Neighbourhood planning offers a critical analysis of community-based planning activity in England, framed within a broader view of collaborative rationality and its limits. From the recent experience of drawing up parish plans, and attempts to connect these to formal policy frameworks, it identifies lessons for future planning at the neighbourhood scale. It is not a manual on community planning practice, nor does it provide a formula for producing parish or neighbourhood plans. But in the context of the latest 'localism' agenda in England it, first, examines the potential contribution of neighbourhood planning to building a 'collaborative democracy' and, second, asks how much movement towards genuine local partnership, and consensus around development decisions, can be achieved through the rescaling of 'statutory' planning as opposed to expending greater effort locally on building stronger relationships, and generating trust, between 'people and planning'

Nick Gallent is Professor of Housing and Planning and Head of the Bartlett School of Planning at University College London. Steve Robinson is Senior Planning Officer at Allerdale District Council and is currently completing doctoral research into rural gentrification and community change at the Bartlett School of Planning.

CONTENTS

Part 1: Democracy, planning and localism

Introduction
Democratic Renewal, Planning and Housing Growth in England
Localism and its Antecedents
Community-based Planning and Plans

Part 2 Capacity building and community-based planning

Ashford and its Strategic Planning Context
Power, Capacity and Collaborative Planning
Community Dynamics and Planning
Capacity Building and Out-reach

Part 3 The interface with policy actors

Connectivity at the Policy / Community Interface
Working with Local Government
Working through Intermediaries
Community-Based Plans
Planning's Critical Interface

Part 4 Neighbourhood planning, leadership and democratic renewal: Responsibility and Responsiveness: Lessons from Parish Planning
Conclusions