Neighbourhood planning

The purpose of this new tier of plan making is to empower local people to enable them to shape the area in which they live. Neighbourhood planning enables two types of body - town and parish councils or neighbourhood forums - to prepare, with the community they represent, planning documents for their area.

• Neighbourhood Development Plans set planning policies that will be used to determine planning applications in their respective parishes
• Neighbourhood Development Orders and Community Right to Build Orders grant planning permission for specific development which complies with the order

Which authority?

Local authorities have a legal duty to support and advise those communities undertaking neighbourhood planning. There are two local planning authorities in Eastbourne Borough and Lewes District. This is because parts of Eastbourne Borough and Lewes District are within the South Downs National Park.

• For neighbourhood areas wholly within one local planning authority, this local planning authority will support those undertaking neighbourhood planning.
• For neighbourhood areas within the boundaries of Eastbourne Borough or Lewes District Council and the South Downs National Park Authority, the responsibility for supporting neighbourhood planning will be incumbent upon the local planning authority where the main centre of population is based.

Select the relevant parish council to find historic and ongoing documentation for all neighbourhood development plans.