Abstract/Summary

The paper sets out evidence of how community actors and Local Planning Authorities (LPAs) in England have experienced neighbourhood planning, introduced under the Localism Act (2011). This reflects on and extends earlier nationwide research, where emerging experiences of participating groups were discussed (Parker et al, 2014; 2015). A subset of the same sample of community participants were revisited to check on their progress and experience in the intervening two years since the initial survey work was conducted. The main contribution of this article lies in demonstrating the shifting interpretations of neighbourhood planning as the participants moved through the process of producing a Neighbourhood Development Plan (NDP). Particular attention is paid to the latter stages of NDP production which could not be captured in the original research. We also draw on data collected about neighbourhood planning from LPAs that have worked with and alongside the sample neighbourhoods; to explore the local government perspective and associated support arrangements.