Over the past 5 years Planning Aid has helped over 100,000 individuals and more than 5,000 community groups shape the places where they live and work.

Latest success: June to December 2011

Advice line - 2,883 calls dealt with

Demand continues to grow and grow for this invaluable service.

Web advice - 117,274 page views

We are seeing increasing numbers of people getting the information they need from our web site following the passage of the Localism Act and the new provisions on planning.

Training & capacity building - 2,039 attended events

As our national outreach coordinators have continued to build up the awareness of our services, the overall targets for our outreach activity have been significantly exceeded. The launch of the new Are You Fit? training programme is seeing a significant increase in outreach activity, with over twenty expressions of interest in working with communities, neighbourhoods and other organisations in April and May 2012. We are primarily targeting the North, North East, North West and Yorkshire where Frontrunner demand has been low but where our target clients are mostly located.

Plan making & support - 3,474 attended events

The delivery of training events and activities has significantly increased due to a range of factors, specifically the increase in activity around the Localism Bill becoming an Act and has included events focused on consultation on regulations, the increase in Frontrunners in waves two, three and four and the general awareness of our services promoted through our outreach coordinators and volunteers.

We are also supporting Neighbourhood Planning by:

Handy Guide to Planning
A rewrite of this highly demanded document, simple guide to Planning with emphasis on Neighbourhood Planning, written in conjunction with Urban Forum. This will be made available in booklet form as this has been in great demand under the current Planning System and also as a free download.

Planning Pack
The redevelopment of the set of seventeen documents that are a more detailed breakdown of Spatial Planning, the Localism Act and Neighbourhood Planning. This will be a downloadable set of documents from our website. The current Planning Pack is downloaded from our website at over 10,000 copies per year.

Plan Making Support
A range of tools to support the Are You Fit for Neighbourhood Planning product, to allow the development of plans. Aimed at supporting community and neighbourhood groups through the planning system with support, where eligible, from a team of 750 RTPI volunteers, consisting of a Corporate Planning professional, facilitators, researchers and where required, technical specialists.

Website project
A new website will be launched in the first half of 2012, providing a far more interactive experience of planning for the public, neighbourhood forums, neighbourhood planners and volunteers. A key element of the site will be an interactive FAQ and answer section that will be supported by a Neighbourhood Planning knowledge base – aimed at extending the current Advice Line support into Internet support.

Further Planning Aid Work

Visit the websites for Planning Aid for Scotland and Planning Aid Wales for details of good work carried out by other Planning Aid services in the UK:

Planning Aid for Scotland: www.planningaidscotland.org.uk

Planning Aid Wales: www.planningaidwales.org.uk

Author:

Lucy Millson-Watkins

Publisher:

Planning Aid

Date:

09-Feb-12

This article has been read 538 times.