ABSTRACT
This chapter provides brief background to the emergence of the localism agenda in its current form in English politics, describes the aims of localism and the opportunities and requirements of neighbourhood planning as one specific form of localism, and discusses the characteristics and criticisms of localism as identified in existing literature. Subsequently, the geographical, political and planning contexts of Oxfordshire within which circumstances the Wootton and St Helen Without Neighbourhood Plan has been developed are outlined. Finally, the process of the development of this plan and its interaction with the relevant local plan are described to lay the groundwork for the detailed discussions that follow in subsequent chapters.
