Greening Neighbourhood Plans: Integrating green infrastructure into community-led planning

The Town and Country Planning Association (TCPA) and the academic community both now assert that Green Infrastructure (GI) should be recognised as 'critical' and be integrated into spatial planning systems (TCPA & WT, 2012; Roe & Mell, 2013). One of the key challenges is identifying the appropriate scale for implementation (Gilchrist et al., 2016). Individual components are implemented at a neighbourhood scale, with the value placed on these often only recognised at the very local level. This means that landscape management at the neighbourhood scale is critical to sustaining and strengthening the GI network. There is, however, no accepted mechanism for capturing the local-level knowledge of GI, which is vitally important if the value of GI to local communities are to be established.

In the UK, GI is to be embedded in planning delivery in the National Planning Policy Framework and local planning policies, with the intention that the microscale can develop context-specific measures to plan sustainable and prosperous communities (DCLG, 2011). A significant knowledge gap in the literature is how small-scale GI planning can be implemented. Demonstrating the way in which existing neighbourhood plans address GI will develop techniques that can be used to support neighbourhood plan development.

In the absence of detailed direction from national government, the role of planning guidance becomes particularly important. Critically, the TCPA are driving the integration of GI into UK planning structures/instruments and have identified a pressing need for GI guidance focussing on neighbourhood planning.

Research Aims and Objectives
Aim: Examine how GI can be sustained and enhanced through the neighbourhood planning process to determine whether this scale can meet strategic planning aims.
Research objectives:
1. Establish the current positioning of GI in the neighbourhood planning process and use this to develop a conceptual framing;
2. Identify expert perspectives on the opportunities and challenges to effective GI integration into neighbourhood planning;
3. Develop innovative methodologies that can capture the value of GI at neighbourhood scales and communicate the benefits experienced at larger spatial scales.
4. Develop guiding principles and recommendations that align with the needs of decision-makers, planning practitioners and local communities, which encourage GI to be sustained and enhanced at neighbourhood scales and that its influence is extended at larger spatial scales.

Research Approach
1. Desk Study
A comprehensive review of the literature to assemble existing knowledge on the integration of GI integration in neighbourhood plans. This will also help establish a database of neighbourhood plans assessing and where and how GI is used and where barriers to its use can be identified.
2. Action Research
The student will be embedded in different neighbourhood planning projects (acting as case
studies for the thesis) at different phases of implementation and completion. The student will engage with three neighbourhood planning projects (case studies). This will include the use of focus groups, interviews, and policy/development analysis.
The student will develop a policy/practice framework to aid the discussion and communication regarding the inclusion of GI in neighbourhood plans. It will also create innovative methodologies to assist neighbourhood forums to evidence the value of GI and integrate it future plans. The final phase will trial these techniques.
3. Expert Interviews
The candidate will engage in an in-depth set of discussions with local planning officers, neighbourhood forums and professions to generate an evidence base of planning, community engagement and environmental knowledge that can be used to frame inclusion of GI in the neighbourhood planning process.
4. Public interviews and surveys
To ensure that the proposed options for the inclusion of GI in neighbourhood plans are acceptable.