Community Action Plans
A Community Action Plan (CAP) is a document that lays out the aims of a community for 5 to 10 years.
It has a vision to aim for and can cover all the changes that your community needs and wants to be become a thriving place for all to live.
These changes can include everything from setting up youth groups to working to make local streets safer to plans to convert an empty local building into a community centre.
It usually has a list of actions and projects alongside a delivery plan for how to make things happen.
For each project or action, the delivery plan has things like
- timeframes (short/medium/long)
- indicative costs
- first steps
- lists of partner organisations to work with
- and possibly a nominated local lead group to work towards delivery.
There are no regulations or set of rules that lay out how a CAP must be produced.
Local Place Plans
A Local Place Plan has a particular function to help communities articulate how they want to see development and regulation of land-use and buildings happen over a period of 5 to 10 years.
It is a new form of plan that gives communities a statutory right to develop a document that, when registered with the Local Authority Planning Department, becomes a material consideration (i.e. something that carries weight in the decision-making process) in how decisions are made about development and regulation of land use and buildings in your place.
It is designed to focus on issues that the planning system controls, not everything that a wider Community Action can cover.
For example, LPPs can make proposals about the location and type of housing that a community would like to see, or an expansion to an existing conservation area.
Because an LPP is designed to make policy proposals to influence the planning system, a delivery plan is not required. Instead what is required is a series of statements reasoning why (‘justifying’) each proposal should be allowed by the planning system.
Not all ideas and projects in a CAP will have a connection to the planning system, but some will. For example, a CAP project to build a community centre would do well to also be expressed as an LPP proposal inviting the planning system to recognise that a community centre could in principle be built in a particular location.
One comprehensive report can be created that serves the goals of both a CAP and an LPP. Such a document would contain both a delivery plan for the projects wanted and a set of proposals to influence planning policy, including reasoning.
Does your group need to discern whether it wants to do a Community Action Plan, a Local Place Plan, or both?
Please contact us at Place at the Table for an initial free chat to begin to think through your needs and aspirations. We also offer an introductory training session which can be delivered online or in person to your group.
By the end of this session your will have the confidence and information necessary to make this decision as a group.
Related planning questions
A Local Place Plan only actually requires two maps: a map outlining the geographical boundary of the area the LPP covers and a legend map that shows where each proposal in the LPP is located. However, communities often use a lot more maps in their plans because of how well […]
Read MoreSuccessful registration can also mean that proposals in your LPP will be formally assessed for their suitability to be included in any emerging Local Development Plan in your area. To be registered, your plan needs to go through what’s known as a validation process. This ensures that you have submitted […]
Read MoreDepending on the report required (CAP or LPP), a report might include the following sections: Executive Summary Purpose and Scope Background and Context section detailing key statistics and baseline data Community Vision section Actions and Initiatives, including Delivery Plan List of Local Place Plan Proposals Statements chapter including: Links to […]
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