Category Archives: Neighbourhood Planning

This paper explores the production of what counts as authoritative knowledge in neighbourhood planning in England. Its aim is to evidence the process through which the intelligibility of place was established in neighbourhood planning  and to chart the exclusions and … Continue reading →

My latest paper to be published in Planning Theory and Practice discusses how neighbourhood plans represent a sense of place and how a convincing narrative of place impacts on policies for  housing development. It argues that neighbourhood plans invoke the subjectivities of … Continue reading →

Does it matter that three neighbourhood plans failed examination last year? With over 2000 neighbourhood plans underway and 240 now passed referendum, are these failures to be expected as the number of plans increases? Or is it, more worryingly, the … Continue reading →

Neighbourhood planning has created opportunities for communities to advance new socially and environmentally sustainable housing solutions that conflict with the interests of corporate house-builders and unsettle the depiction of citizens’ groups as protectionist and opposed to all economic growth. The … Continue reading →

Planning scholarship tends to shy away from the emotional realm and planners in practice assert their distance from attachment. The policy of neighbourhood planning in England is unusual in that it addresses people’s emotional commitment to place, or their place … Continue reading →

In a new book ‘Building Sustainable Futures‘ edited by Dastbaz and Strange and published by Springer 2015 I contribute a chapter on neighbourhood planning and sustainable communities. The concept of sustainable communities has come to define a particular type of governance … Continue reading →

The policy intention of neighbourhood planning in England was to overcome community opposition to house-building. It was anticipated that neighbourhood plans would increase the number of sites allocated for housing by giving communities more influence over the shape of development … Continue reading →

Around 40 people from neighbourhood planning groups across Leeds took part in an innovative knowledge exchange workshop organised by Leeds Beckett University’s Planning Network on 7 November. The workshop was organised by Leeds Planning Network, a new research cluster set … Continue reading →

Neighbourhood plans in England are creating new lines of political conflict in the relationship between central and local government. The new Housing and Planning Bill (2015) grants neighbourhood planning areas a right of appeal to the secretary of state in … Continue reading →

In this post, I explore the traditions of self-management and community control behind the rise of neighbourhood planning in England. The desire for autonomy, for self-organisation and self-management, has been a persistent thread in the history of community action in … Continue reading →