Community Led Planning

What is Community Led Planning?

Local people producing a plan

Community Led Planning is a term that covers a range of different approaches a community can take to create a vision for their local area and an action plan to achieve it. Examples of Community Led Plans include Parish Plans (in rural areas), Neighbourhood Plans (in urban areas), Market Town Healthchecks (now referred to as Town Action Planning) and Planning for Real.

Community Led Plans are not imposed from above, but initiated and led by local volunteers. There are tools & people available to support communities at all stages of the process but it is important that the plan is owned by the community itself.

Why is the LSP focussing on Community Led Planning?

The LSP sees Community Led Plans as an ideal way of:

• Bringing a local community together to develop a shared vision of how they want their area to be in the future
• Enabling communities to identify actions they can undertake themselves and those where they may need additional support
• Developing the relationship between communities, the District & County Councils, NHS, police & other local partners. Working together, they have both access to funding and expertise, and are also responsible for creating the plans that will determine the future of the local area
• Building up a picture of community strengths, concerns, issues and opportunities across the district in order to inform strategic priorities and plans

How are the LSP supporting Community Led Planning in Suffolk Coastal?

The LSP is supporting the development and delivery of Community Led Plans across the district through a programme being overseen by the Suffolk Coastal Resource Network (SCRN). For example, in order to share learning and maximise the use of resources and expertise, wherever possible we are working together with Waveney LSP which has made a similar commitment to supporting Community Led Planning.

What we’re aiming to do

• Groups of volunteers getting involved in community led planing

  Increase the number of communities in Suffolk Coastal with some form of local plan
• Encourage communities with plans developed before 2006 to review or refresh their plans
• Test new methods of engagement and action planning
• Make information and data about a local area more accessible to communities in order to support the development of plans
• Hold events to bring together communities and service providers in order to explore alternative solutions to common issues
• Encourage parishes to share their experiences and work together to address similar issues
• Map the common issues coming out of community plans in order to inform the LSP’s strategic priorities
• Develop a mechanism to ensure partners are able to respond in a more coherent and joined up way when more strategic input is required

Further Information

Resources, guidance and help with developing or delivering a plan

For more information about Community Led Planning and Parish Plans, please see http://www.suffolkacre.org.uk/main.php/community_support_and_consultation/parish_plans (New window) or contact Gillian Bejamin at Suffolk ACRE by emailing gillian.benjamin@suffolkacre.org.uk