Creating your Neighbourhood Plan

Overview

We know how important Neighbourhood Plans are to a Local Council, and we know how much better they are when maps are included during the drafting and consultation phases. That's why we've taken learning from user feedback and neighbourhood plan consultant professionals to create a set of pre-built layers in Parish Online to help kickstart your plan.

These layers show up automatically in your account, and by default will be blank. They're there ready for you to use when you begin your Neighbourhood Plan.

Note: we highly recommend engaging with a neighbourhood planning consultant who uses Parish Online. They know all the legal elements and know how to help you draft a great plan.

The following guides you through the different phases of your Neighbourhood Plan.

1. Exploring the Data in Parish Online

Before you embark on your Neighbourhood Plan, it's highly recommended to explorer the many map datasets in Parish Online. Compiling all the planning, environmental and transport constraints in your area can be a technically challenging and tedious job, so that's why Parish Online Mapping exists. We put it all on a plate for you.

Using Parish Online Mapping saves many hours spent compiling data. By using Parish Online Mapping, you've just saved the cost of the software, just in consultancy costs!

Layers that Parish Online supply

There are hundreds of map layers to explore, so use the search box in the Layer Control to drill down to find the ones relevant for you.

Some of the key Collections (expandable folders) to look at are:

Digital Planning Data. This is an evolving set of layers compiling information from many planning authorities. It's not complete yet, so may not show data for your area, but it includes useful data such as Article 4 Directions, Bus Stops and Conservation Areas.

Environment Agency - Flood Map for Planning. Start by switching on the RoFRS (Risk of Flooding from Rivers and Seas) and the RoFSW (Risk of Flooding from Surface Water) as that'll show you the areas where housing is going to be trickiest.

Layers that your planning authority supply

Unfortunately, this is quite variable. We work with as many Local Authorities as we can to get critical information from them and share it into your Parish Online Mapping account. Data that we ask for includes:

Local Plan data
Tree Preservation Orders
Owned Land
Street Assets
Call for Sites

Have a look in the left-hand Layer Control to see if there are any Collections that have been shared with you. They are typically named "XX Council Data Sharing".

If you don't see any information, this is the time to get in touch with your higher-tier authority and request the data. Use this guide for requesting Local Council data.

2. Giving your Neighbourhood Planning consultant access

It's recommended to have a Neighbourhood Planning consultant help you with your plan. They're excellent value for money and have a wealth of information to guide you through the process. We're not paid by any of the consultants to say that!

To give them access, log into your account, go to the Administration panel and create a new user for them. Set them as Data Manager.

3. Start using your editable Neighbourhood Plan layers

We've pre-defined the layer structure and the styling for each layer. This has the benefit of being able to use it straight away, but has the downside of not being able to tweak the layers yourself. We're very open to feedback on improving the layers as these improvements will help everyone. We'll run feedback by neighbourhood plan professionals to ensure they're appropriate and correct.

What you draw into Parish Online Mapping is private to your local council. We do not share the data to the planning authority until you're ready.

What layers are included?

Assets of Community Value

Biodiversity Corridors

Biodiversity Corridors (Polygons)

Call for Sites Responses

HELAA Sites

Housing Allocation

Important Views and Vistas

Please note, this layer is both odd and brilliant at the same time. Read below to get a full understanding of how to use it

There are 5 columns of information to add into this layer to produce a viewshed, with 4 of them being required:

To add a viewshed:

Click a single point on the map where you want the viewshed to originate
(Optional) add a Name or ID to place a label over the originating point
Add a direction in degrees. We recommend using 0-360 as values but this can be any positive or negative number. e.g. entering 90 will point the viewshed due East. 0 will point the viewshed due North. 290 will point the viewshed West North West (ish). -70 will also point the viewshed West North West (ish).
Add a distance in metres. This is how far the viewshed will project away from the originating point. e.g. 2000 will project the viewshed 2km.
Choose a colour. There are preset colours to choose from. There's no current methodology on what to choose, so this is personal preference. There's an Outline one should you wish to save printer ink.
Chose an Angle in degrees. This will represent how much of a spread the viewshed has. For example, 22 is a 22 degrees spread, so it will spread to 11 degrees each side of the direction angle, and will be a quite slim viewshed. 112 is a very wide spread viewshed.

Local Gaps

Local Open Spaces (Lines)

Local Open Spaces

Local Green Spaces (Lines)

Local Green Spaces (Polygons)

Plan Boundary

Renewable Energy Project Sites

Location for where best to put new local renewable projects.

Settlement Boundary Extensions

Recognised Village Envelope

Drainage Sites

Sewage Sites

Road Schemes

Cycle Routes

4. Sharing Maps for consultation

As you progress through the stages of the plan, you'll want to share your maps. This could be internally to start, then to the public for consultations. Here are your sharing options:

Share internally. Simply give any council staff or member who wants to see the map a login for Parish Online Mapping. You can do this from the Admin Panel. Set them as Reader if you don't want them to change anything. Creating Users
Print PDFs. Use the Print tool to produce a PDF file that can be emailed, or sent to a printer to print off. You can produce PDFs up to A0, so if you know somewhere with that sized printer, you can create big wall maps. Using the Print Tool
Embed on your website. Use the Public Map tool to create an interactive map that's limited to just a handful of layers you want to show. This is great for getting the public engaged in your project. The Public Map can be embedded in any website. Using the Public Map

5. Sharing data with Planning Authority

Once your Neighbourhood Plan has been completed, it's important to share the mapping information to your planning authority so they can bring it into their mapping system. Once it's in there it will be considered alongside their Local Plan when making planning considerations.

Don't just share the document and PDF maps from your plan. Ask Parish Online to extract the actual map data from the system which can be sent to the planning authority in a compatible format.

6. Keeping your Parish Online Mapping subscription

Your Neighbourhood Plan is not something you should complete then lock away in a drawer, it's a living piece of your Local Council, so retaining it within your Parish Online Mapping account is key. Keeping your subscription active means the data won't get deleted and lives on is there to reference for your other daily work. Parish Online has many other uses beyond Neighbourhood Planning including:

Asset Management
Allotment Management
Cemetery Management
Events planning
Biodiversity and Nature Recovery
Boundary investigations.

Your Mapping Software is a valuable tool so don't drop it once your Neighbourhood Plan is complete.

Credits

Many thanks to Maureen Chaffe and Jacqueline Veater for providing input to this Collection design. Please consider hiring them or any other consultant when starting your Neighbourhood Plan.