At our recent conference in collaboration with RTPI Yorkshire we welcomed six fantastic speakers to discuss the latest developments in Neighbourhood planning. Opening the conference was Steve Hoey, Head of Neighbourhood Planning & Housing at Locality, who delivered a national overview of local planning uptake, what neighbourhood plans can achieve on the ground and why people should get involved.
Next up was Robert Pritchard, Principal Associate at Eversheds Sutherland who spoke about neighbourhood planning and the courts covering the hugely important issues of legislation and policy. Grete Smith of Fishwick & St Matthews Neighbourhood Forum then talked about life in Inner East Preston and how they are now two years after the brexit referendum asking the question “was it all worth it”. Our final speaker of the morning was Ian Mackay, Neighbourhood Planning Manager at Leeds City Council who presented on the key lessons for planners, five years on from the introduction of the Localism Act 2011 which mandated neighbourhood planning and gave greater powers to communities to have a say in area development which affected them. The session concluded with a question & answer session.
Following a delicious buffet lunch of sandwiches, fruit and cake we resumed the presentations with Leeds Planning School’s Dr Quintin Bradley, a Senior Lecturer and group Chair who gave an overview of housing and neighbourhood planning – following on from much discussion generated from previous Leeds Planning School (formally Leeds Planning Network) events.
Our final speaker of the day was John Curtin from the village of Clifford who spoke about the Clifford Neighbourhood Plan which is now a legally binding planning document, “made” by Leeds City Council in March earlier this year (Details here). It was very interesting to hear about their journey to this point and how they envisage the plan working for all going forward.
Overall a very interesting and informative day was had by all with great feedback from our delegates. We look forward to hosting another session with RTPI Yorkshire as part of their conference series very soon! Details about the RTPI Yorkshire Conference Series and upcoming events can be found on their website at the following link.
In the meantime, all the slides from the 21st September event as well as the live social media stream can be viewed and downloaded as follows…
RTPI Yorkshire Conference Series @ Leeds Beckett University. Thursday 21st September 2017. Slideshow.
Social Media Twitter Stream
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