The Neighbourhood Planning process has been developed as part of the Localism Act and does have real statutory power.

The planning framework is currently set by Cornwall Council, through consultation across the county. The neighbourhood plan will be a reference document for this planning framework, and represent exactly what we want as a community. For further reading please visit www.locality.org.uk which provides an insightful overview for community led organisations, including neighbourhood planning. Locality’s “quick guide to neighbourhood planning” is a great summary of the process.

The overall Neighbourhood Planning process will cumulate in a referendum which invites everybody of voting age within the parish, to answer a simple yes or no question, such as- “Do you want the PZNP to form the decision making document for all future planning applications?” With a simple majority, the community’s ideas become the planning framework for the Parish.

Recent Neighbourhood Plans that have been adopted in Cornwall include “St Eval”, “Quethiock” and “Roseland”.

The Plan covers the entire Penzance Parish area and will therefore need to reflect the aspirations and concerns of each distinct area, be that Penzance, Newlyn, Mousehole, Paul, Heamoor or Gulval. The aim of the PZNP is to ensure that each community area is engaged with.

To see where your home sits within the Penzance stakeholder zones, and comments from members of your community on what they like, don’t like, and would like to change about where they live, visit the ‘have your say’ area of our site.

The Neighbourhood Plan will have real statutory power, and there are processes that must be followed, evidence gathered, and consultation undertaken to inform the policies that will make up the overall plan. Members of the Neighbourhood Planning Board have been on the road visiting each Stakeholder Zone to discuss what affects you in your area. Through this consultation we are developing objectives, and policy options for the draft neighbourhood plan.

The PZNP was launched in February 2015, with an initial consultation phase lasting approximately 6 weeks. The results of this initial consultation are available in the “what you said” section of this website.

Having completed our initial consultation regarding the 16 key regeneration sites for Penzance, we sent the results of this Survey via a letterbox drop to the whole of the Parish in October 2015. Alongside these results we included a survey addressing housing & facility needs throughout the parish – another key issue to be addressed in the emerging Neighbourhood Plan. If you haven’t already and would like to complete the survey you can do so here. You can also view ideas for regeneration across Penzance from residents of Penzance on the Plans section of our have your say page.