5. How much work will be required and is it similar to a parish plan?
The level of work will depend upon the complexity of the issues and the level of detail the plan goes into. This will be decided by the parish council and local community but there are some statutory requirements which must be met and the Neighbourhood Plan must comply with national policy and the strategic policies of the local plan. We have a duty to provide technical and practical support to the planning process and our commitments are set out in the protocol on the guidance pages of our website. It is expected that neighbourhood plans will take around two years to produce. Many of our parishes already have parish plans and these will continue to inform our decision making, although their age will affect the weight give to them. Some parishes have asked whether these can be adapted to form neighbourhood plans and we would suggest that the evidence used to produce them, provided it is up to date, is likely to be very relevant to the Neighbourhood Plan and will give a clear indication of the issues of most concern to local communities.