Community Planning

Community Led Planning is a collective term for the different types of plans that can be prepared by a community for its own area, often a parish.  It gives communities an opportunity to make things happen locally, can be used as evidence to attract funding for local projects, mobilise volunteers to tackle local issues or be used to develop a collective understanding of place and people.

Before deciding on a plan it is important to establish what it is your community wants it to achieve.  This will then guide your choice of plan or indeed whether to undertake a plan at all.  There is no requirement for communities to prepare a plan of any sort.

Like all plans, community led plans need to be kept up to date and refreshed every 3 -5 years. They should be based on sound evidence and thorough community consultation and engagement.   The preparation of the plan is only the first stage and most often it is the actions that stem from it that have the greatest community impact.

Neighbourhood Development Plans and Parish Plans are the most popular community-led planning approaches.

Have a look at our Dartmoor Neighbourhood Plan Areas page to see which parishes on Dartmoor are pursuing a Neighbourhood Development Plan.