LOCAL PUBLIC DATA PANEL

Planning sub-group

Note of telecon 31st January 2013

Participants:

Annemarie Naylor, Locality

Gesche Schmid, LGA

Steve Peters, DCLG

Clare Clark, DCLG

  1. The group had before it the results of Locality’s survey of neighbourhood planning front-runners and Annemarie’s summary (attached).
  1. Issues faced by citizens/ those involved in neighbourhood planning included:
  • Lack of knowledge of what information/ datasets are available
  • Little understanding of how to find relevant information/ who to ask
  • Potentially – though the survey did not really major on this – lack of skills to manipulate/ interpret the data. [And potential for this gap to be plugged by intermediaries.]
  1. The Annex to this paper includes a list of datasets mentioned by neighbourhood planning frontrunners, which I have generalised to make them non-place-specific. In itself, this list would be helpful to neighbourhood planning groups in giving them a starting point showing what datasets might be helpful.
  1. To further improve the helpfulness of this list, the group agreed that we should work on identifying:
  • Which datasets are held by Central Government Depts and which ones (Steve)
  • Which datasets are held by local authorities (Gesche)
  • Which datasets currently sit on a Local Information System (Steve)
  • Which datasets are currently on data.gov.uk (Clare)
  • Whether any of these datasets have been requested by the Open Data User Group (Gesche to ask Cabinet Office)
  • Where there are third party licensing issues (Gesche)
  1. Steve P agreed to look into the datasets in Housing Needs Assessments (which were previously submitted to DCLG as part of Regional Spatial Strategies), and whether any underlying datasets could be made available. Action: Steve.
  1. The group also agreed we should speak to the Planning Advisory Service about advice for local authorities on how to signpost their data relevant to planning, and include contact details. In particular, it would be useful to demonstrate what good looks like – potentially with a demonstrator tool. was flagged up as a useful site. There was also the potential for a “self-help” website, bringing together those interested in local planning to share experiences and ideas.

Actions:

  • Steve and Gesche to discuss potential areas to pilot/ be demonstrator.
  • Steve/ Clare to update Planning colleagues in DCLG, and to contact Planning Advisory Service.
  • Then, Annemarie to contact the neighbourhood planning frontrunners who responded to the survey to tell them next steps and invite their involvement. Also to flag up Steve’s work on household projections update in March with a widget enabling people to look at their local area.
  1. The group noted this was an example of where data needs could have been built into policy consideration at an earlier stage; and also that any demonstrator should look to be a general framework, useable for any policy area, not just neighbourhood planning.

Clare Clark

31st January 2013

Annex: List of datasets from the Locality Survey (generalised)

Population/ general background

Population data (principal council)

ONS population datasets

Household Incomes

Council Tax Bands

Cultural strategy

Crime statistics

Good Health and Wellbeing Strategy

Official Labour Market Statistics

Ofsted reports

Deprivation statistics

Pensioner and child benefit data (DWP)

Land Use

Maps

Land ownership

Boundary council assets

Landscape value

Heritage and Historic Value

Agricultural Land Classification

EU Habitats Directive

Water and electricity utilities capacity to deliver etc

Community Network profile

Heritage Strategy

SLAR [not sure what this stands for]

Landscape

Environmental designations (Wildlife Trust)

Tree Preservation Orders Data

Department of Transport, Manual for Streets (2007)

Strategic Flood Risk Assessment Main Report

Flood Management Strategy

Sites with special environmental protection

Flood plain map

Travel and transport

Traffic data (principal council)

Highways Data

Department of Transport, Building Sustainable Transport into New Developments (2008)

Parking Standards

Area Transport Strategy

Journey to Work

Local Transport Plan

Car ownership from DVLA

Planning

Planning policy (local planning authority)

Local Plan 2011 and evidence data sets supporting it

Planning Documents. National Planning Framework (2012) Statutory Instrument 2012 No. 637, Town and Country Planning, England (2012)

.National Planning Policy Statement 1; Delivering Sustainable Development (2005)

The Localism Act (2011)

Town and Country Planning Act 1990 (Section 61G)

Neighbourhood Planning (General) Regulations 2012 (Regulation 6) Designation of a Neighbourhood Area Approval.

Town and Country Planning Act 1990 (Section 61G)

Documents Neighbourhood Planning (General) Regulations 2012 (Regulation 6)

District Council: Neighbourhood Planning Guidance (2011)

Parish Plan

Parish Council, Questionnaire

District Council, Site Specific Policies and Allocations Document

Council, Place-Making Guide

Development Partnership: Local Investment Plan and Programme

Development Partnership: Joint Core Strategy

Development Partnership, Joint Core Strategy Annual Monitoring Reports

Reference material from supporting bodies including Design Council CABE and The Glass-House training material.

Housing needs

Social Housing demographics

Town and Country Planning Association, Creating Garden Cities and Suburbs Today (2012)

Housing Needs survey

Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment site availability

Commercial

Commercial development information (commercial developers)

Creative industries strategy

Retail study

Community views

Community views collected directly by community

Community surveys