Voices from the neighbourhood: stories from the participants in neighbourhood plans and the professionals working with them

In this chapter, we convey the everyday experiences of neighbourhood planning by bringing together the voices of a range of different actors involved in a variety of plans. We have presented these accounts as narratives without comment or interpretation as we believe they give a unique and powerful insight not only into the practical and emotional aspects of ‘doing’ neighbourhood planning, but also into the wider issues that this book is engaged with. Readers will be able to make connections between these accounts and the themes raised so far. The voices also give different perspectives reflecting the different interests engaged in neighbourhood development plans (NDPs): neighbourhood forum and parish/town council members; local authorities; developers; and consultants. They are, of course, not representative, but that was never the intention of this chapter. The accounts are drawn from a range of sources, including interviews and presentations to workshops. In some cases, the verbatim accounts have been slightly edited to clarify the meaning; however, we have remained as true to the original meaning as possible. I’m the Chairman of the Neighbourhood Plan Steering Group in Linton, a small village of 270 houses north-east of Leeds. Like most communities, our neighbourhood plan was driven by fear of unwanted development. In 2012, we realised that there were quite a number of land sites that had been put forward for housing in our village. Nearly every resident within the village was going to be affected by one or more of these sites, and if all the sites were developed, it would double the size of the village, so there was great concern about this.