East Suffolk Council
Community Led Planning
Community led planning offers people with the opportunity to help to shape the future of the places in which they live, work and play. It can help to influence the provision of housing, green space, services and facilities and a variety of options are now available for those interested communities.
A significant number of our parishes already have some form of community plan in place, mostly in the form of parish plans. Other types of community plan include village reviews and village design statements. Parish plans and village reviews can be a useful starting point for those communities wishing to progress to a full Neighbourhood Development Plan.
The Localism Act 2011 introduced a number of new rights for communities including the neighbourhood planning tools that communities can use to influence how their local area develops. These new tools are Neighbourhood Development Plans, Neighbourhood Development Orders and the Community Right to Build.
Thinking about what your community wants to achieve and understanding the advantages and disadvantages of the different options will help you decide which approach is best for you and your local circumstances.
If you are looking to set up a community group, run a consultation, develop a project or produce a plan, we have several guides to help get you started:
Setting up a group or committee
- Designing a constitution
- Terms of reference for general working groups
- Terms of reference for a neighbourhood plan steering group
- How to perform a skills audit
Producing a community plan
- Choosing a community plan
- Guide to producing a neighbourhood plan
- Guide to producing town and parish plans
- Quick guide to neighbourhood plans
- Quick guide to town and parish plans
Ideas for consultations
- All about consultation (workbook)
- Consultation methods compared
- Quick guide to writing questionnaires
- How to write a questionnaire
- Guide to producing a stakeholder analysis
If you would like to discuss any of these issues in more detail:
- For Parish and Community Plans contact our Communities team
- For Neighbourhood Planning contact our Planning Policy and Delivery team
- For Community Led Planning advice see the Suffolk County Council website