Requests for four areas of the city to be designated neighbourhood areas have been approved by Peterborough City Council's Planning and Environmental Protection committee.

The designations mean that residents will have the opportunity to take part in neighbourhood planning.

Applications from Deeping Gate Parish Council, Glinton Parish Council, Northborough Parish Council and Peakirk Parish Council were all approved at the meeting on Tuesday. They are the first requests the city council has received to establish neighbourhood areas, which is the first step for these parishes to prepare a neighbourhood plan. All four of the neighbourhood areas designated encompass the whole of the respective parish.

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The Localism Act 2011 created a range of measures to provide more power to local communities. This included allowing them to guide development within their local area through the production of a neighbourhood plan or neighbourhood development order.

A neighbourhood plan can establish general planning policies for the development and use of land in a neighbourhood, including where additional new homes and offices should be built and what they should look like. A neighbourhood plan would be considered alongside Peterborough’s Local Plan and the National Planning Policy Framework when the city council is deciding planning applications within the neighbourhood area to which it applies.

Simon Machen, Head of Planning, Transport and Engineering for Peterborough City Council, said: "The neighbourhood area element of the Localism Act allows local residents to have much more say over developments that take place in their community.

"The designation of the neighbourhood areas means that each parish council can now proceed with the preparation of a neighbourhood development plan, neighbourhood development order, or both, should they wish.

"Once a neighbourhood plan has been approved, the city council is legally bound to give weight to it when deciding planning applications."

(CD/MH)