Planning Guidance for Plan Preparation

These pages contain guidance from official sources as to how we should prepare the Parish Plan. There are links to comprehensive guidance provided by the Countryside Agency, Hart District Council and others.

Having read the guidance on this page you can then read how we intend to produce the Yateley Parish Plan.

The Yateley Parish Plans Steering Group requires feedback from the community as to whether you consider we are taking into account all topics relevant to Yateley, and carrying out the process according to your wishes. Contact us via the email link on the SideBar.

The following is a precis of the 13 page Toolkit on Hart District Council's website, which you can download as an Acrobat file at ......

What is a Parish Plan?

All rural communities should develop 'Town, Village and Parish Plans' to identify key facilities and services, to set out the problems that need to be tackled and to demonstrate how distinctive characters and features could be preserved.

The Key Principles of Parish Plans:

Parish plans are produced by and for local communities to lay out a shared vision for the future of the community over the next 5-10 years. A parish plan should be comprehensive -- considering social, economic and environmental issues of concern to the community (Examples of issues in Table A) -- and involve the whole community -- everyone should have a chance to have their say and get involved in producing the plan.

The Plan should be based upon robust evidence and information provided by community participation, survey and research, supported by records of sources and processes. Be focused on action, with clear statements of Who? What? Why? and How? Aimed to guide the community action to meet local needs, help them prioritise their resources and to provide important information to help influence the policies, decisions and actions of others. Owned by a community to deliver in partnership with others and not handed over for the action plan to be delivered by outside agencies. Expected to take on average between 12 to­ 14 months to complete.

Table A: Examples of issues:

HOUSING -- CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE -- LOCAL DEMOCRACY -- TRANSPORTATION -- LOCAL SERVICES -- SOCIAL AND COMMUNITY FACILITIES -- LAYOUT AND DESIGN DISTINCTIVENESS -- LANDSCAPE AND THE COUNTRYSIDE -- ECONOMY AND BUSINESS -- ENVIRONMENT, RECYCLING AND CONSERVATION -- LOCAL HERITAGE FEATURES OR BUILDINGS -- EQUALITY AND DIVERSITY

What is the community's role?

The issues that concern the community should be identified through a comprehensive and representative consultation process involving all sectors of the local community. The results of this will need to be structured and prioritised to inform an action plan detailing future realistic and achievable activities. A wellstructured action plan could identify:

Actions required and details of action to be taken Priority of action and timescale Who will be involved including partner organisations Lead organisations when drafting statutory planning documents. The Parish Plan, or information gathered as part of its preparation, can therefore have a valuable role to play as part of the forthcoming LDF consultation process, and can help to shape the new LDF.

Potential benefits:

i) Locally based Action Plan. Actions that are realistic and can be undertaken within local resources.

ii) Policy Influencing. Information taken from community consultation to inform the actions of others, not necessarily land-use planning-related.

iii) Planning Influence. Evidence-based information, responses and proposals that can be incorporated within Supplementary Planning Documents that will be formally adopted by Hart as part of its Local Development Framework, and that are relevant to and capable of use by Planning Officers or Inspectors when informing planning decisions, both in policy and development control.

There may be many local issues that arise in a parish plan, not all of which will be directly relevant to Hart's land-use planning role. These may help to focus action from the local community itself, set the agenda for the parish or town council, or help to inform or enable actions by other services in Hart Council or public service promoters.

Dual issues may cover:-

Community Safety -- Housing -- Health -- Leisure and recreation -- Transportation -- Access to and maintenance of essential services -- Open space provision -- Town and village centre vitality and economic robustness -- The changing rural economy -- Quality of Life

It is important to see the parish plan primarily as a local vision, capitalising on and embracing the views, interests and knowledge of local people. Successful examples elsewhere have been seen as particularly valuable in providing the impetus for more and better community identity and engagement, resulting in long-term benefits.

The latest guidance and information is all available via the

Parish Plans section of the Hart District Council Web-site

At a much simpler level there is an Acrobat file available on the

English Heritage website

Move on to: How we intend to produce the Yateley Parish Plan.

Top