1 What is Neighbourhood Planning?

Communities were given the right to have more say in development that happens in their local area in the Localism Act 2010. These rights are exercised mainly in the ability to develop a neighbourhood plan which is then adopted by local authorities. Local authorities are then guided by their adopted neighbourhood plans when deciding which developments to give planning permission to.

A Neighbourhood Plan is a legal planning document that must be considered alongside other National, London and Local Plans when future development, regeneration and enhancement of the neighbourhood area are being considered.

There is an arguement that funding for planning at local levels should be given to councils. However, since central government have decided to give funding to communities to do the work either communities do it or it doesn’t get done, and it is done relatively cheaply.

Councils are nonetheless funded and required to support communities developing neighbourhood plans, and both councils and the local community benefit from this relationship.

Details of how neighbourhood plans are written can be read here and are illustrated by the roadmap below

 

2 Why do we need a Neighbourhood Plan for the Lee Forum area? ↑

The aim of the Lee Forum founders was to create a platform from which the local community could have a say on planning policy within the Lee Forum area.

The reason for a Neighbourhood Plan is to ensure that the green spaces, heritage, architecture, community assets and local amenities, which are so valued by the residents of the Lee Forum area, are protected and enhanced whilst ensuring that future developments help to create a cohesive, healthy and sustainable environment and encourage the creation of an ongoing history for the current and future benefit of all.

(image of Lee Forum members taken for Lewisham Ledger edition 9)

3 Neighbourhood Plan Delivery and Effectiveness ↑

Delivery of the Plan will be through:

• Allocation of council and developer resources
• Planning Agreements between councils and developers
• Monitoring by Lee Forum and the community
• Collaboration between councils and the community
• Ongoing discussions with landowners and service providers

Effectiveness of the Plan.

You can read case studies about the effectiveness of Neighbourhood Plans around the country here.

Many of us are aware that community wishes and planning policies can fall by the wayside in the face of other powerful interests and pressures and it’s reasonable to ask how effective the Plan can be:

1.  Where a landowner makes a a planning application, council planning officers will check the application against the plan to see if it complies
2. Where the community wants a project to happen they can use the plan to help to progress this, for example in engaging with stakeholders and applying for funding. Having a project in the plan will not automatically make it happen, but will be a tool that can make it easier to bring about should the community work to do this.
3. The level of local detail included in neighbourhood plans is greater than included in other plans. Once plans are adopted by councils they help councils to understand and act in the best interests of their communities.
4. Neighbourhood plans carry legal weight. If plan policies are ignored communities can consider to use of legal reviews (though this can be expensive).
5. Councils are required to support neighbourhood planning. In Greenwich and Lewisham this is through a dedicated officer and is one means by which the community can sustain productive dialogue with councils over time.
6. Neighbourhood planning is funded by DCLG, and once the plan is adopted it can be amended over time as and when community aspirations evolve, with further funding.
7. Neighbourhood forums must be consulted on planning applications, meaning their representations made to uphold the policies of the neighbourhood plan are taken into account in planning decisions.
8. The effectiveness of the plan will partly depend on the community’s use of it. It will be open to all local people and groups to use, not just Lee Forum. We hope that it will be used as much as possible and collaboration maximised.

What if the community want to change the plan after it is adopted?

The neighbourhood plan can be amended over time by the community. This is usually done by applying for more money from DCLG to gather evidence and consult on specific areas. For example, we ran out of money during the current funding round to do masterplanning for Lee Green town centre so the aspiration to do this in the future is already in the neighbourhood plan. Other aspirations may arise, or existing aspirations many change over time.

4 Getting Started 2016 ↑

Lee Forum was set up by and for the local community to increase the community’s say in local planning.

5 Neighbourhood Area Established 2016 ↑

A group of local volunteers organised and started to consult the local community widely to determine the preferred local boundaries of a local neighbourhood forum.
Descriptions of this consultation and the resulting area boundaries can be read in this application which was sent to Lewisham and Greenwich councils in 2016.

6 Neighbourhood Forum Established 2016 ↑

Everyone who lives, works or has an interest in the neighbourhood area is a Lee Forum member.

A group of volunteers consulted and obtained advice from Locality, an organisation which supports community groups, to determine the preferred constitution.

You can read the constitution here.

Lee Forum’s first committee was voted in at the first of Lee Forum’s AGMs, which was held at Halcyon Books on Lee High Road.

7 Community Engagement and Involvement 2016 – 2022 ↑

Suggestions and images from some of those consultations can be seen below:

“We’d like Lee to be a distinctive and welcoming place attracting people from a wide catchment area to visit, work, study, shop and stay.”

“We want to see the District Town Centre thrive once more. New development should respect the much-loved heritage architecture and contribute to a sustained local economy and healthy environment.”

“We want future development to contribute to enhancing the best of Lee’s natural heritage assets, protecting and connecting green infrastructure, particularly a linear park making the River Quaggy a public asset to be enjoyed by all.”

8 Building the evidence base 2016 – 2022 ↑

Lee Forum gathered evidence and commissioned expert reports on for example, local heritage, green spaces and rivers, homes and amenities, retail and local businesses, transport, bus routes and active travel and design guidance which can be read here.

Some of this work is illustrated in the maps below:

9 Themes, Aims, Vision, Options 2017 ↑

Working groups were formed from the wider Lee Forum membership to analyse the consultation responses and evidence in order to develop a Vision and Objectives for the Lee Neighbourhood Plan.

Consultation Results Summary:

These results were then developed into these Objectives:

These working groups and volunteers then drafted the first version of the neighbourhood plan.

10 Writing the Plan 2017-2018 ↑

A consultant planner was engaged with to develop the neighbourhood plan into a professionally produced plan which reflects the consultation results, evidence and vision and objectives that had been developed by Lee Forum. In order to be robust and legally complaint it was (and still is) lengthy. It includes sections on:

• Green and Blue Spaces planning policies and recommendations
• Transport and Connectivity planning policies and recommendations
• Building Homes and Amenities planning policies and recommendations
• Local Retail, Leisure and Economy planning policies and recommendations
• Heritage and Design planning policies and recommendations
• Area Design Guidance planning policies and recommendations
• Priority Projects to be funded by money given to the councils by developers

The policies in these sections are built on these special principles:

Spatial Principle 1: Green Infrastructure and active travel-led development to achieve:

• A continuous local green chain linear park between Manor Park and Sutcliffe Park linking the route of the River Quaggy (including the hidden parts) to be known as the River Quaggy Trail.
• Increased protection and use of the area’s playing fields
• Increased opportunities for active travel such as walking and cycling in the Forum area.
• The creation of a nature trail connecting the Hither Green Triangle along the railway tracks to sites of nature conservation importance south of St Mildred’s Road.

Spatial Principle 2: Heritage-led development to achieve:

• Protection and enhancement of heritage assets (designated and non-designated).
• Heritage-sensitive design of new development, especially in Lee Green Town Centre and, that considers scales, symmetry, form, massing, detailing etc.
• Sensitive integration of new development of human scale, particularly in the District Town Centre.
• Use of high quality innovative design and materials contributing to the ongoing evolution of local character

Spatial Principle 3: Accessible and connected social-cultural nodes of retail and social activity to achieve:

• A healthier public realm within and between the Lee Forum areas of principle retail activity to encourage a thriving local economy in line with the Mayor of London’s Healthy Streets Approach.
• Amenities that serve all cultures and age groups living in the Forum area.
• A thriving local economy.
• Opportunities for active and sustainable travel, negating over-reliance on cars

At the end of the planning policies sections, the neighbourhood plan includes a section on design guidance across the Lee Forum area. Additionally it includes recommended further actions explaining what local people have said they would like to see in the area which cannot be included as planning policy.

11 Consultation 2019 ↑

The results of this consultation were used to amend the neighbourhood plan.

The results of this consultation and how they amended the neighbourhood plan can be read here (pages 25-40).

12 Lee Neighbourhood Plan ↑

The full neighbourhood plan is 253 pages long. There are many sections, including local history, design guidance, background and priority projects for the area. If you don’t have time to read it all, you may want to concentrate on the planning policies sections (scroll down) since it is these that the council consider when deciding whether to approve or refuse planning applications. If either of these documents are not displaying properly on your device, you can download the PDFs here and here.

Examples of Policies and Design Guides that will guide Council decisions on local planning applications (the policies are what you are invited to vote on):

•  Identify and protect almost 80 local heritage assets that are not mapped in other council plans including buildings, bridges, a sundial, waymarkers,
•  Map local community centres and amenities so they are not lost to development.
•  Provide for local businesses to stay onsite during redevelopment by developing sites in stages.
•  Should Sainsburys decide to redevelop its site, that a supermarket be retained on the site.
•  Improve safety through improved infrastructure at Lee Green and Burnt Ash/ South circular junctions and along Lee High Road.
•  Bring about biodiversity improvements and increased access along the River Quaggy and Hither Green railway sidings.
•  Map all local  green spaces, enabling their easier protection eg in Milborough Crescent, Pitfold Road and Dermody Gardens.
•  Bring vacant and derelict sites back into use by encouraging ‘meanwhile’ uses.
•  Identify sites for new housing that matches local housing and design aspirations.
•  Should the owner of the BMW garage site at Lee Green apply to develop it, that public access be allowed where the river Quaggy borders the site.
•  Apply specifically local design guidance for seven distinct sections of the Lee Forum area, recognising what is uniquely special about each area.
•  Improve public realm on Staplehurst Road, Burnt Ash Road, Lee Green crossroads and Lee High Road.
•  Reduce the impact of tall buildings through setting back higher stories and maximum heights.
•  Encourage diversity of businesses and cultural activities eg through requiring varied planning use classes.
•  Attempt to retain existing trees and hedgerows on development sites.
•  Increase biodiversity eg require large developers to provide it on site or elsewhere in the forum area.
• Create healthy and safe routes linking the area’s key destinations eg train stations, parks and retail areas.
•  Consider allergy sufferers when assessing species included in public realm planting schemes.
•  Improve night and daytime safety on local streets through design eg with lighting and residential overlooking.

Examples of Priority Projects and Recommendations Actions that can be used additionally by the Community to attract funding and stakeholder engagement to pursue local aspirations:

•  New public realm in Lee Green town centre at Osborne Terrace.
•  Improved bus links to Maritime and North Greenwich and Bexleyheath.
•  Improved links from the local area to the Elizabeth Line.
•  Increased community led activities particularly youth provision.
•  Investment in community consultation and nature around the River Quaggy and Hither Green sidings.
•  Proptected community assets  eg playing fields north of Eltham Road.
•  New conservation areas to protect local heritage including on Lee High Road and Lee Green town centre.
•  Encourage councils to use their powers to tackle substandard housing and derelict buildings.
•  Work with arts providers to encourage cultural diversity in local retail centres.

*Please note LTNs do not fall within the remit of neighbourhood planning*