Community Led Planning

Local Strategic Partnerships & Community Strategies

Local Strategic Partnerships are places where public agencies such as the National Park Authority, local councils, primary care trusts and the police get together with other public, private and voluntary sector members to work with their local communities to plan and deliver better services.

Community strategies are core documents that guide all strategic and service plans for the area, promoting an agreed long term vision for improving the community's economic, environmental and social wellbeing.

Strategic Partnerships generally operate within local authority boundaries. There are several strategic partnerships that work across Dartmoor, both at county and district level. For more information please look on the Local Strategic Partnership page.

Local Community Plans

At a more local level, there are a number of different community led planning routes open to communities who wish to prepare a plan of their own. Sometimes it can be difficult to decide what, if any, type of Community-Led Plan to prepare. The information below will help you decide what type of plan is right for your local community.

There is no requirement to prepare a plan of any sort. If your community is happy with the existing plans for the area then you don’t need to prepare anything more.

If you do decide to prepare a community plan it is vital to ensure effective and inclusive engagement with your community throughout the process. This will ensure that your plan recognises all your community’s needs and aspirations. Alongside the community consultation and engagement, other evidence such as studies, statistics and reviews, will all need to be gathered to be used to identify priorities and determine what actions need to be taken to achieve the plans objectives.

Those leading the development of any community plan need to be objective and able to consider all views, opinions and evidence fairly and consistently, even where these may not accord with their own personal views

Parish Plans

A Parish Plan identifies the features and local characteristics people value, recognises local problems and opportunities and describe how residents want their community to develop, providing an action plan for the parish. It is not limited to looking at spatial or land use planning only, unlike neighbourhood plans.

A Parish Plan does not have to follow a statutory process and can therefore be more flexible in its approach. However, a parish plan must still be produced in accordance with good practice, should be able to show evidence of wide community engagement, involvement and support and be endorsed by the relevant town or parish council.

The National Park’s development plan document (Policy DMD46) states that where a parish plan or village design statement has been prepared and has been endorsed by the town or parish council, the relevant recommendations and/or action plans of such documents will be regarded as material considerations in the determination of local development proposals.

Further information on parish plans can be found on the Community Council of Devon website (external site, opens in new window).

Neighbourhood Development Plans

A Neighbourhood Development Plan (under the Localism Act) enables communities to establish planning policies for the development and use of land in a neighbourhood. Certain formal steps have to be taken to comply with the legislation, including independent examination and a local referendum, before the plan can be adopted. Once this happens the local planning authority will be obliged to take what it says into account when they consider proposals for development in the neighbourhood.

A neighbourhood plan must comply with European and National legislation and must have appropriate regard to national policy and be in conformity with existing strategic local planning policy. The foundations of a good neighbourhood plan will be a robust programme of community engagement and a strong evidence base to provide a clear understanding of the area and of the views, aspirations, wants and needs of local residents and businesses.

Locality’s Quick Guide to Neighbourhood Planning (external website, opens new browser window) gives you a short, step by step overview of the neighbourhood planning process.

For those who want more detailed information, Locality’s Neighbourhood Planning Road Map Guide is a comprehensive guide to producing a Neighbourhood Plan. It takes you through the process step by step, from first deciding to join with people from your local community to create a Neighbourhood Plan, to submitting the finished article.

What Next?

If your community is interested in pursuing a community led plan approach on Dartmoor, then please do contact the Communities Officer (jrumble@dartmoor.gov.uk) at the Dartmoor National Park Authority, who can advise you on the next steps

Submitted Applications for Neighbourhood Plan Areas.

Applications for requests for Neighbourhood Plan areas to be designated have been received from:

Buckfastleigh Town Council, November 2012

Community Planning is a process which enables public agencies such as local councils, primary care trusts, police, the national park authorities and other public, private and voluntary sector members to work with their local communities to plan and deliver better services.