Public reports pack PDF 3 MB - Blaby District Council

with them to help them realise their communities’ aspirations. Support can be
given in ways that do not directly involve financial expenditure such as
allowing groups access to council information and data bases and to
resources such as maps etc without passing on charges.
6.16 Blaby District Council has to determine what level of support it wishes to
provide to the Neighbourhood Planning process and whether it is appropriate
to devote either financial resources or officer time and commitment towards
helping groups and forums to develop their plans.
6.17 Currently Blaby District Council provides support to the Fosse Villages
Neighbourhood Forum by both passing on finance in terms of Front Runner
monies and providing officer support to the regular meetings of the Forum and
to the public consultation exercises that they run.
6.18 Additional funding has recently been announced that is intended to support
local authorities in resourcing the required support for Neighbourhood Plans.
Funding will be available in two tranches, £5,000 on designation of the
Neighbourhood Plan area and £20,000 on completion of the referendum. It is
clear from the current guidance on this funding that it is intended to directly
support the additional burden placed on local authorities and it is therefore
recommended that this funding is placed within a Neighbourhood Planning
reserve fund to support the Council’s work in discharging it’s responsibilities
for neighbourhood planning
Duty to Adopt
6.19 Once a Neighbourhood plan has received more than 50% support at a local
referendum the Council will be required to adopt it as part of the Development
Plan and will therefore be required to determine future applications for
development bearing it in mind as a ‘material consideration.’
Governance and Protocols
6.20 The Portfolio Holder for Planning will be the lead Member for Neighbourhood
Planning matters and will be supported from officers within the Planning
Service and the Policy, Partnerships and Performance Service. Closer
engagement will be critical to the success of the Neighbourhood Planning
process within Blaby. The ability of the Planning Service to provide the likely
level of support within existing resources is unclear but these issues will be
closely examined during the forthcoming review of the Planning Service.
Leicester and Leicestershire Neighbourhood Planning Toolkit
6.21 The County Council continue to give a very high level of support to the Fosse
Villages Neighbourhood Forum and are working on a Leicester and
Leicestershire Neighbourhood Planning Toolkit and have established a project
steering group to carry this work forward. Blaby District Council is represented
on this body by the Planning Policy Team Leader. The toolkit will aim to
support communities across the County in developing a Neighbourhood Plan
and will provide:
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