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Submitting your Neighbourhood Plan


How do you carry out a Regulation 14 Pre-submission consultation and publicity (6 weeks)?

Once you have drafted your neighbourhood plan you will need to carry out a public consultation.  This must run for at least 6 weeks and allow people who live, work or run businesses in the area to comment on your proposals.  This is a statutory requirement and is known as the Regulation 14 consultation.  You will also need to consult statutory consultees such as:

  • Environment Agency
  • Natural England
  • Historic England

Please use our full list of statutory consultees for your consultation:

Statutory consultees

You will also need to consult any:

  • neighbouring town or parish councils
  • significant local landowners
  • local community organisations
  • anyone else who has previously been involved with the neighbourhood plan

This could also include:

  • chambers of commerce
  • civic societies and local trusts

How do you carry out a Local Green Spaces Appraisal?

We have created a new Local Green Spaces Appraisal template. This is to show the examiner in a clear way that you have provided justification and appraisal of any sites proposed as Local Green Space.   You will need to show you have contacted owners of those proposed Local Green Spaces to make the examination quicker.

Local Green Spaces Appraisal template

You should publish the neighbourhood plan on the parish website and / or neighbourhood plan website. You should also tell people in your local area where they can access a copy, how they can comment and the consultation expiry date.

It may be useful to produce a summary version of the neighbourhood plan. This sets out the aims, main themes and general direction of the policies.

Consider the comments that you receive and amend the neighbourhood plan accordingly. Alternatively, explain why the neighbourhood plan has not been amended

How do you comply with the Regulation 15 Submission law?

Consultation statement

You will need to prepare a consultation statement as part of your submission. This should:

  • summarise the issues and concerns you have received
  • demonstrate how these have been considered and addressed in your neighbourhood plan

We have created a consultation statement template. This is to help you meet the legal requirements:

Consultation statement template

Email addresses

You must provide us with the email addresses for:

  • all organisations previously consulted 
    and
  • all the people/organisations that made comments on the draft neighbourhood plan

This is important as we need this information when we consult again on the submitted neighbourhood plan.  We will keep the names and contact details of members of the public private. This is to comply with UK Data Protection legislation.

Basic conditions statement

You must also produce a basic conditions statement. This will show how your neighbourhood plan meets the requirements of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 (as amended). We have created a basic conditions statement which will help you to do this:

Basic conditions statement template

You can then submit your neighbourhood plan to us at:

This should include:

  • the basic conditions statement
  • consultation statement
  • the email addresses

We will check that the neighbourhood plan has followed the proper legal process.  If your neighbourhood plan does not meet the basic conditions the neighbourhood plan may not proceed to referendum until it meets the statutory requirements.

Regulation 16 Public consultation and publicity (6 weeks)

Once we have carried out a legal compliance check on your neighbourhood plan we will carry out a public consultation.  This must run for at least 6 weeks and allow people who live, work or run businesses in the area (Regulation 16) to comment on your proposals.  We will also consult statutory consultees such as:

  • Environment Agency
  • Natural England
  • Historic England

We will also consult any:

  • neighbouring town or parish councils
  • significant landowners
  • local community organisations and
  • anyone else who has previously been involved with the neighbourhood plan

The neighbourhood plan and comments received will be published on our website.

What does the law say about the neighbourhood planning consultations?

Please view the following document:

The Legislation: The Neighbourhood Planing (General) Regulations 2012

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