Victoria business group to be first to bid for neighbourhood planning powers

The BID's board has backed plans to make an application to Westminster City Council to be designated as a neighbourhood forum. If the application is approved the group will be able to draw up a neighbourhood plan tohelp shape development and growth in the local area.

The Victoria BID represents businesses and organisations in the area, providing a platform for businesses to work together on developments and improvements in the area.

The neighbourhood forum application is likely to be a joint application between the BID and the Victoria Interchange Group (VIC), BID manager Scott Nixon said, according to reports. The VIC is an umbrella group of local residents' organisations and is expected to make a decision on whether to apply in mid-October, he said.

The decision to apply to be designated as  a neighbourhood forum follows concerns among members of the BID that the area could otherwise be divided into various planning areas, as it is surrounded by a number of residential areas, Nixon said. Becoming a neighbourhood forum would preserve the cohesiveness of the BID.

"If we didn’t create our own area, we could potentially sit on four to five different forums which would be very time-consuming and potentially quite politically difficult. Because we represent so many local businesses, we just want to make sure their voice is heard in the planning process," he said.

"The Victoria BID’s proposal to apply for neighbourhood forum status highlights the interesting issue of how a local planning authority should consider, and ultimately designate, neighbourhood area boundaries for areas that do not have a parish council," said Jamie Lockerbie, planning expert at Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com.

"The Victoria BID has raised the concern that its proposed neighbourhood area could potentially be subject to five different neighbourhood area applications. There is very little guidance on how a local planning authority should determine a neighbourhood area application, save that the relevant legislation does permit the local planning authority to refuse an application if it considers that the specified area is not an “appropriate area” to be designated as a neighbourhood area," said Lockerbie.

"It will be interesting to see whether any neighbourhood area applications get refused on the basis that the area concerned would more appropriately form part of a larger neighbourhood area," he said.