Neighbourhood plans

What is neighbourhood planning?

Neighbourhood planning gives communities direct power to develop a shared vision for their neighbourhood and shape the development and growth of their local area. Communities are able to choose where they want growth, have their say on design, and what infrastructure should be provided. They can also strive to deliver ambitious projects, including tackling climate change and helping the environment. Neighbourhood planning provides a powerful set of tools for local people to plan for the types of development to meet their community’s needs. A neighbourhood plan should support the delivery of strategic policies set out in the Local Plan and should shape and direct development that is outside those strategic policies. However, it is absolutely critical that neighbourhood plans are not a tool to prevent development.

Extra resources

The council highly recommend looking at the central government's advice on neighbourhood planning, 'Locality's Roadmap Guide', and the Leicestershire County Council Neighbourhood Planning website:

• National Planning Practice Guidance: Neighbourhood Planning  (GOV.UK)
• Locality's 'How to create a Neighbourhood Plan: Your step-by-step roadmap guide' (neighbourhoodplanning.org)
• Leicestershire County Council - Leicestershire Communities, Neighbourhood Planning  (leicestershirecommunities.org.uk)

Guidance documents

The flowchart below gives an overview of the various stages of the neighbourhood planning process, and what groups should consider when progressing through the phases.

• Neighbourhood planning flowchart

This guide gives details of the support packages from central government which groups can apply for during the preparation of the neighbourhood plan.

• A guide to locality's technical support packages

Our current neighbourhood plans

You can view the communities that currently have a neighbourhood plan, or are in the process of producing one on the following page:

• Current and proposed neighbourhood plans

Last updated: 17/02/2025 10:05