Neighbourhood Plan Area Designations

Listen

The neighbourhood plan area must to be agreed by Purbeck District Council before the plan is started. The area should be identified early in the process to avoid the risk of planning for an area that may not be approved.

Establishing a neighbourhood plan area

Parish boundaries are considered to be logical boundaries for a neighbourhood plan area but there may be circumstances where a different area may make more sense, for example, joining with a neighbouring parish where common or cross-boundary issues need to be addressed. Please contact us to discuss the area, as we may be able to highlight potential issues to consider.

How to designate a neighbourhood plan area

The town or parish council, or (where there is no local council) the approved neighbourhood forum, must apply in writing to Purbeck District Council to designate the neighbourhood plan area.

You can either complete the application form to request to designate a neighbourhood plan area (word, 694kb) (opens in a new window) or write a letter and send by post or email to Purbeck District Council. The request must include:

the name of the neighbourhood plan area. Please explain why this area is considered appropriate to be designated as a neighbourhood area
a map which identifies the area to be designated*
the name of the applying body with a statement explaining why this is a relevant body to make the application for the purposes of section 61G of the 1990 Act

*Completing the ordnance survey public sector mapping agreement application (opens in a new window) allows Purbeck District Council to provide parish and town councils with maps for use in neighbourhood planning.

If you need help with your designation request please contact Purbeck Planning Policy Team

Once we receive your application we will publicise it for a minimum of 4 weeks and invite representations in line with 2015 amendment to the Neighbourhood Planning Regulations (pdf, 40kb) (opens in a new window). We will write to relevant service providers and interest groups, asking for their views, before making a decision. We will publicise the decision on this website.