ABSTRACT
During the general election campaign of 2010, the then Conservative opposition presented a strong narrative around decentralisation. The Localism Act, which received royal assent in 2011, introduced the new legislative framework for neighbourhood planning. The May 2016 Queen's Speech also revealed further appetite by the Conservative government for the extension of neighbourhood planning with the announcement of the introduction of a new neighbourhood planning bill. Since April 2012, local communities have been given the power to produce neighbourhood development plans (NDPs) for their local area. The involvement of the local planning authority throughout is considered to be very important in order to ensure that neighbourhood and local plans are complementary and that policy conflicts are minimised. The pioneer in neighbourhood development orders was in the Cumbrian town of Cockermouth when, after a three-year process, a local referendum in 2014 approved the order which permitted certain developments in particular areas without the need to submit a planning application.
