District and Borough Councils in Gloucestershire have produced Local Plans to show how they can achieve housing and employment targets. Your community’s Neighbourhood Development Plan can use local knowledge to show how development can be shaped in your area in a way that complements the overarching ideas set out in the Local Plan. 

Grants of up to £10,000 are currently available through Locality to communities producing NDPs.

The NDP process involves several consultation stages, plus an examination and a final referendum before the NDP can become a statutory document, so it’s important that you assess whether it is the right way forward for you, and that you have the people and resources to create an NDP.

How GRCC can help

GRCC has supported many NDP’s both inside and outside the county. 

At no cost to your Parish or Town Council, we can provide:

• an initial phone call to offer advice
• an ‘Introduction to NDPs’ presentation for your Parish Council or community group
• help with your funding application for grant support

If your Parish Council or community group isn't sure if creating an NDP is the right option, we can offer a ‘Community-Led Planning Options’ presentation instead. This discusses all the different community-led planning options available, to allow you to make an informed decision about which would be the most beneficial for your community.

Funded services

For new NDPs, GRCC offers 3 workshops as follows:

• Getting Started – guidance about setting up your steering group and planning the process. Identifying issues and gathering evidence - what to gather, where to find it, analysing what it means to your community and which aspects are relevant to your NDP
• Consulting with your Community - using appropriate methods and interpreting the responses for developing your plan’s vision and objectives
• Reviewing your NDP – how to review or refresh your NDP effectively, and when to do it

For existing NDPs where you are considering the need to "Review & Refresh", we offer an initial workshop to decide whether this needs to be done, and if so, the steps required to do this. 

Additional Support

Additional support for any NDP can include:

• conducting surveys and data analysis
• technical audits and reports (such as housing stock or community facilities and assets)
• consultation event facilitation
• plan composition
• advice and support with gathering evidence needed for Local Green Space Designation