What is a Neighbourhood Development Plan?

A Neighbourhood Development Plan (NDP) is being prepared to help residents shape future planning for Great Massingham. Once finished, the NDP will be used by our Borough Council in determining planning applications.

The term ‘Development’ means much more than just housing and potentially covers anything that concerns the development and use of land. For example it may consider:

  • Location, scale & type of any new housing or business expansion
  • Second homes/holiday homes
  • Green spaces and ponds (pits)
  • Vehicle parking spaces and electric charging
  • Footpaths and rights of way
  • Allotments
  • Sites of historical interest
  • Community facilities e.g., pre-school, recreational facilities, Village Hall
  • Views, landscapes and other visual attributes
  • Environmental sustainability e.g. trees, wildlife, biodiversity, renewable energy
  • Local services e.g., school, surgery and fire station

The NDP Preparation Process

Introduction

Great Massingham Parish Council (the Parish Council) is preparing a Great Massingham Neighbourhood Development Plan (NDP) which will cover the whole of its area. It is being prepared under the provisions of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 (as amended) and associated legislation.

The preparation of the NDP will enable the local community to play a much stronger role in shaping the parish of Great Massingham and in supporting new development proposals within it. This is because the NDP, once finalised, will form part of the ‘statutory development plan’ for the Parish and sit alongside the Borough Council of King’s Lynn and West Norfolk’s Local Plan (Local Plan). Decisions on planning applications will be made using both the Local Plan and the NDP and any other material considerations.

The preparation of the NDP will provide the opportunity for the residents of Great Massingham Parish and other interested parties, such as local businesses, landowners and service providers, to set out a positive vision for how they want their community to develop over the next 10-20 years in ways that meet identified local need and make sense for local people. The NDP will enable them to put in place planning policies for the development and use of land that will help deliver that vision.

The NDP will contain ‘non-strategic planning policies’ (i.e., they will not be concerned with addressing the strategic priorities of the wider area set out in the Local Plan). Such policies can deal with various matters, including the allocation of sites for different types of development, the provision of infrastructure and community facilities at a local level, the establishment of design principles, the conservation and enhancement of the natural and historic environment and the setting out of other development management policies.

Background information

Further information on the legislative background to the preparation of the NDP can be found in the Government’s Neighbourhood Planning (General) Regulations 2012 (as amended). View via the link here.

Government planning guidance on the preparation of the NDP is available here.

Further guidance on the preparation of the NDP has been prepared by Locality, the national membership network for community organisations. View via the link here.

The Government’s national planning policy for England, the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), within which the preparation of NDPs is set, is available here.

Great Massingham Parish Council has established a Neighbourhood Development Plan Steering Group (Steering Group) to oversee the various stages of the NDP’s preparation. A summary of the key stages in the preparation of the NDP (with progress to date) is set out below.

Summary of Stages and Progress To Date

Step 1: Designation of the Great Massingham neighbourhood area
Great Massingham Parish Council (a ‘relevant body’) submits an application to the local planning authority (the Borough Council of King’s Lynn and West Norfolk) to designate a ‘neighbourhood area’
Progress: In its letter dated 28 June 2021, the Borough Council of King’s Lynn and West Norfolk (hereafter the Borough Council) formally recognised Great Massingham Parish Council as a relevant body and designated Great Massingham as a neighbourhood area.

Step 2: Preparing a draft NDP
Great Massingham Parish Council (as the ‘qualifying body’) develops proposals (advised or assisted by the local planning authority) by:

  • gathering baseline information and evidence
  • engaging and consulting those living and working in the neighbourhood area and those with an interest in or affected by the proposals (e.g. service providers)
  • talking to landowners and the development industry
  • identifying and assessing options
  • determining whether a NDP is likely to have significant environmental effect
  • starting to prepare proposals documents e.g. basic conditions statement

Progress: In March 2022, the Steering Group is to undertake an opinion survey of the local community within the neighbourhood area (including residents, other landowners, businesses, societies and organisations) seeking views that will assist in informing a ‘vision and aims’ for the Parish. The vision and aims will then be translated into a practical set of policies, as the means to achieving them, and possibly allocating sites. For more details on the Opinion Survey, see here 

The following steps are yet to be taken (as of February 2022):

 Step 3: Pre-submission publicity and consultation
Great Massingham Parish Council:

  • publicises the draft NDP and invites representations
  • consults the consultation bodies as appropriate
  • sends a copy of the draft NDP to the local planning authority
  • where European Obligations apply, complies with relevant publicity and consultation requirements
  • considers consultation responses and amends the draft NDP if appropriate
  • prepares a consultation statement and other proposal documents

Step 4: Submission of the NDP to the local planning authority

  • Great Massingham Parish Council submits the NDP to the Borough Council, the local planning authority
  • The Borough Council, as the local planning authority, checks that the submitted proposal complies with all relevant legislation
  • If the Borough Council finds that the NDP meets the legal requirements it:
  1. publicises the proposal for a minimum 6 weeks and invites representations
  2. notifies consultation bodies referred to in the consultation statement
  3. appoints an independent examiner (with the agreement of the qualifying body (i.e., the Parish Council)

Step 5: Independent Examination

  • Borough Council sends NDP proposal and representation to the independent examiner
  • independent examiner undertakes examination
  • independent examiner issues a report to the Borough Council and the Parish Council
  • Borough Council publishes the report
  • Borough Council considers report and reaches its own view and takes the decision on whether to send the NDP to referendum

Steps 6 and 7: Referendum and bringing the NDP into force

 Borough Council publishes information statement

  • Borough Council publishes notice of referendum
  • polling takes place
  • results declared
  • should more than half of those voting vote in favour of the NDP, the NDP comes into force as part of the statutory development plan for the area
  • there are narrow circumstances where the local planning authority is not required to make the NDP. These are where it considers that the making of the NDP would breach, or otherwise be incompatible with, any EU or human rights obligations (see section 61E(8) of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 Act as amended).

Further information on the preparation of the NDP will be provided in due course.