Community Groups

The people within your local community will have their own individual concerns about places, buildings, roads and open spaces. However, you may be a member of a community group that has joined together to try to change something that you all feel strongly about. Very often those concerns will be about proposals for new housing development in your area, plans to shut down an existing service such as a post office, to build a new supermarket or to develop on a school playing field or other open land.

If your group is interested in the potential impact of future development on your own lives and the lives of other people around you, we suggest that you start by looking through the "Guide to Sustainable Communities" which encourages you to think about the daily needs of people living and working in your neighbourhood. Below we provide a brief outline of the national and local policies that aim to manage change in your community in ways that will benefit everyone.

In the "Guide to Sustainable Places" we will consider the way your own area could be changed for the better, both now and into the future. Your community may have already set up a residents' group, sports club or environmental organisation. You may want a better place near your home to walk, run, exercise your dog or take your children to play. You may just want the view from your window or along your street to be improved.

In the section "Guide to Sustainable Living" we provide information and practical advice which could help you and your group to make everyday choices that will help to reduce the impacts of your community on the environment and also help to encourage everyone to adopt a more sustainable lifestyle.

The Government's aim is "to create great places where people want to live, work and raise a family..." Planning is said to be fundamental to this process and all plans and proposals should be tested to see whether they will make the community more or less sustainable in the long term. The CLG web-site says that "Our planning and building regulation involvement ensures that we get the right development, in the right place, at the right time. We also work to protect and enhance the environment through the planning system..."

On the CLG website you will find lots of useful information. Unfortunately much of it is written in complicated technical language and jargon that makes it hard for non-planners to understand. We hope this web-site will provide more straightforward information that will encourage you and your neighbours to become involved in the process of planning for sustainable communities.

Local authorities have three separate (but connected) tasks, writing community strategies, local area agreements and planning policies, see below. They are required by the Government to involve local people in their decisions and your group may have been invited to take part in "stakeholder" discussions and/or consultation events.

The Sustainable Community Strategy will be written by the Local Strategic Partnership for the area and they will also be responsible for the Local Area Agreement between all the agencies and organisations that provide community services. The Local Development Framework will comprise a series of planning documents that will each be adopted by the Council after having been "examined" by an impartial Planning Inspector at a public hearing. These documents must work together to achieve the "Vision" that the Council has agreed for the future of your area.

If you want to find out more about the way your local Council intends to involve local people when they are preparing these strategies and policies, look for the "Statement of Community Involvement" on their web-site, or ask to see it in their offices.

All forms of new development need planning permission and applications must be made to your local Council. Planners working for the Council will advise you about any current proposals that will affect your neighbourhood.

If you are concerned about a planning application that has been made, or you believe is about to be made, for development affecting your area, then you should contact the Development Management Team in the local authority. Their telephone number should be on the Council's web-site or you could turn up at the Planning reception desk and ask for information.

Sustainable development is central to the planning system. However, in many cases, planners do not always think about sustainability when they consider planning applications and proposals that affect people's lives.

Planners dealing with planning policies are required by law to use a technical "checklist" called Sustainability Appraisal (SA) to test whether local and regional planning policies and proposals will provide a balance of social, environmental and economic benefits. You may have seen a Sustainability Appraisal if you have been consulted on a draft Core Strategy or Development Plan Document (DPD) as part of the new Local Development Framework (LDF).

Whilst there is no legal requirement for a Sustainability Appraisal to be submitted with a planning application, many local authorities are asking for a Sustainability Report to be prepared, particularly for large and controversial developments that may not provide benefits for the local community.

We suggest you should ask the planners whether the sustainability of your neighbourhood will be considered when the decision is made. If they say no, then ask why not. It is a perfectly reasonable question that you are entitled to ask.

If your group feels strongly that it wishes to pursue an objection to the development that is being proposed, then issues of sustainability could become part of your case for refusal or could help you to argue that the proposed development may be acceptable if it is altered to provide greater benefits to your community. To find out more, we suggest you should look through the information on the "Sustainability Appraisal" page below.

Despite rumours to the contrary, most planners are helpful people, though you will probably need to make an appointment to see a particular Planning Officer. If you know that there is a planning application affecting your area, but you feel you are not being given much information or advice by the Council, then we suggest you make contact with the Planning Aid service for your region.

Their web-site explains that "Planning Aid provides free, independent and professional help, advice and support on planning issues to people and communities who cannot afford to hire a planning consultant. Planning Aid complements the work of local authorities but is wholly independent of them." The national web-site provides information about who to contact.