by Ed Dade
Planning applications are generally determined in accordance with the Development Plan for the local area. This includes the Local Plan and any Neighbourhood Plans.
The policies you write are, therefore, powerful tools which can decide where development can be located, and what the development should be like. These will often have financial and environmental implications.
National policy states that all policies should be underpinned by relevant and up-to-date evidence. This includes policies in Neighbourhood Plans.
Most of the evidence you need for your Neighbourhood Plan will already be available in the public domain.
You may find the following sources of existing evidence useful:
Where there are no existing sources of evidence, you may need to undertake your own research to inform your policies. For example, a really good design policy would be informed by some analysis of local buildings, streets and landscape.