Neighbourhood Development Plan

What does our NDP mean for St Hilary? 

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Neighbourhood planning gives communities direct power to develop a shared vision for their neighbourhood and shape the development of their local area. Communities use neighbourhood planning for setting planning policies that are used in determining planning applications. Planning decisions will be made using both the Cornwall Local Plan and the St Hilary Neighbourhood Plan, and any other material considerations.

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The Cornwall Local Plan sets strategic objectives such as housing targets which it allocates locally to towns and parishes. These localities cannot change the targets, but if they have an approved development plan in place which has been approved in a referendum they can determine how these targets are met in their area, for example, by indicating where new housing should or should not be built and in what style, type and tenure. 

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In this respect the neighbourhood plan will prevail provided it has set reasonable conditions and unless material considerations dictate otherwise. The legal powers of neighbourhood plans relate specifically to matters of land use, but the government recognises that communities may have wider planning goals that they feel should be linked to their development plan so they may be included as part of the plan provided they are separately identifiable such as being included as an appendix to the main document. 

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Neighbourhood planning is not a legal requirement but a right resulting from the Localism Act 2011 which communities can choose to use. St Hilary, like most parishes in Cornwall, has chosen to engage in this process and draw together a neighbourhood plan in order to provide the parish with a statutory planning document which is based on the views and input of its residents. A neighbourhood plan attains the same legal status as the local plan once it has been approved at a referendum. At this point it comes into force as part of the statutory development plan. In order for the community to achieve success with their neighbourhood plan, their policies must be robustly evidenced and clear. Neighbourhood plans are supported by other documents, evidence and background information. In the case of the St Hilary Neighbourhood Plan these can be accessed at St Hilary NDP and are summarised in the Evidence Base page.