Localism
QUALITY GOLD FOR CANVEY ISLAND
CANVEY Island Town Council in Essex has received prestigious Quality Gold status as part of NALC’s Local Council Award Scheme (LCAS). This achievement recognises that the council achieves good practice in governance, community engagement and council improvement and goes above and beyond its legal obligations, leading its community and continuously seeking opportunities to improve and develop further. The Award Scheme report highlighted the council’s particular areas of strength, including meeting all requirements of the Foundation and Quality Standards and being at the forefront of best practice by achieving an excellent standard in community governance, community leadership and performance management. The LCAS is a peer-assessed programme designed to provide tools and encouragement to councils at the beginning of their journey, as well as promoting and recognising those at the cutting edge of the sector.
According to NALC, Canvey Island and other local councils are on the front line of the government’s localism agenda and are doing as much as they can to deliver services while being efficient and cost-effective. The award was presented at the council’s Community Awards evening on 20 September. The mayor, Cllr Barry Palmer, said: “It is a great achievement to be one of such a small group of town and parish councils in Essex to have been awarded this standard, and to have achieved this in such a short space of time is a fantastic accomplishment.” The council is now reviewing ways in which it can continue improving on its offer.
Clerks & Councils Direct November 2021
SEEKING FEEDBACK ON NEIGHBOURHOOD PLANS
SILEBY Parish Council has recently concluded work on its Neighbourhood Plan and on 21 November 2019 the referendum was successful, with 90 per cent of people who voted voting yes.
We are looking forward to seeing the impact of the Neighbourhood Plan in the coming years as planning applications in the parish are determined with reference to the policies it contains. Indeed, we were delighted that even before the referendum, the Neighbourhood Plan was referenced by an inspector in his decision notice when refusing an appeal against a 228-dwelling development, noting that the appeal site sat outside of the settlement limits as identified by the Plan and, as such, was contrary to the relevant Neighbourhood Plan Policy.
We are aware of the powers that Neighbourhood Plans have as prescribed in national planning legislation, and their position alongside Local Plans in the statutory development plan as “equal partners”. However, we are also concerned about the level of discretion that local planning authorities appear to have in the weight they attribute to Neighbourhood Plans.
We have heard of many excellent local planning authorities that fully embrace the concept of neighbourhood planning, promote it amongst parish councils and work alongside community groups in ensuring that local aspirations are translated into workable planning policies, and then reference the Neighbourhood Plan and apply full weight to it when determining planning applications.
We are also aware of local planning authorities that appear to disregard Neighbourhood Plans when determining planning applications. Through conversations with colleagues, we are aware of disparaging remarks that have been made by planning officers that undermine the importance of neighbourhood planning and diminish its role in the planning system.
We feel that this is unhelpful and that greater awareness of the significance of Neighbourhood Plans across local planning authorities and greater consistency in their application is necessary if such planning is to achieve the outcomes that government intended when introducing it through the Localism Act in 2011.
We know that there are good local planning authorities that understand the value of Neighbourhood Plans, but we consider it essential that all local planning authorities follow this course.
The purpose of writing is to ask other parish councils that have prepared Neighbourhood Plans to reply with their experience of their local planning authority – good or bad. We would like to understand better the levels of support being made available by local authorities to highlight levels of inconsistency across the country and to seek to raise standards to the best possible level.
Rosemary Richardson
Clerk to Sileby Parish Council, Leicestershire
Clerks & Councils Direct January 2020