Council guidance

Bedford Borough Council has produced detailed guidance on how we will work with parish councils and neighbourhood forums undertaking neighbourhood planning.

• Download Neighbourhood Planning - what the Council will do (PDF)

We have a service level agreement (SLA) with Bedfordshire Rural Communities Charity (BRCC) to assist with neighbourhood planning. If you require advice please contact planningpolicy@bedford.gov.uk in the first instance.

In order to use maps produced by Bedford Borough Council in any publications, a public sector mapping agreement (PSMA) must be signed to allow sharing of maps that have been produced. Further information is available from Ordnance Survey.

We can't provide bespoke maps for the Neighbourhood Plan Steering Groups, but we can provide a Parish map. There are a number of private companies that can produce and print maps for your documents.

Further details the about use of Ordnance Survey based information is available in the OS mapping briefing note (PDF).

Guidance

• Neighbourhood Planning Roadmap Guide – Locality has produced a comprehensive guide to neighbourhood planning and the document is a useful introduction to the process.
• Funding – The Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) have made funding available to provide support for preparing a Neighbourhood Plan and this is administered by Locality. For groups writing a neighbourhood plan or preparing a neighbourhood development order up to £8,000 will be available. A further £6,000 is available for more complex issues, however this is subject to meeting further criteria. Full details of how to apply. The cost of the examination and referendum will be met by Bedford Borough Council.
• Planning Aid has a lot of useful information on its website including guidance notes, case studies and videos. Guidance notes are available here: neighbourhoodplanning.org/resources
• Locality has produced a guidance note for carrying out housing needs assessments for neighbourhood plans. Use the guide How to undertake a Housing Needs Assessment (HNA).
• Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government - Government advice and guidance on neighbourhood planning can be found on the Planning Portal website.
• Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government produces a bulletin on national progress in neighbourhood planning. Follow the link to view the bulletins.
• Neighbourhood Planning (General) Regulations 2012
• Green Infrastructure Plans – Green infrastructure is an important part of development and to provide evidence in the Neighbourhood Plan, the qualifying body may choose to commission a Green Infrastructure Plan. Further details on what this will involve is outlined Green Infrastructure Plan briefing note (PDF).
• Historic Environment – the historic environment is one theme that a Neighbourhood Plan may cover. Further information is available in this briefing note produced by the Historic Environment Team at Bedford Borough.

Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL)

The Community Infrastructure Levy was introduced in April 2013. If there is an adopted Neighbourhood Development Plan, or Neighbourhood Development Order, this will have implications for the amount of funding for local infrastructure priorities that is passed to the parish councils (or to be used by the council for local infrastructure priorities in unparished areas) from developments granted planning permission.

The amount of funding is currently 25% of the CIL received from developments. Further information is available here.

Infrastructure issues

Infrastructure should be considered as part of a Neighbourhood Plan, particularly when development sites are to be included as allocations. The qualifying body should consider what additional infrastructure may be needed to cater for future development and how this may be delivered. It would also be useful to consider what the likely impacts on proposed site allocations would be on the existing services. Contact should be made in at an early stage of the plan process with the infrastructure providers.

Contact details

For further information, please contact planningpolicy@bedford.gov.uk