Introduction

Working creatively within the National Planning Policy Framework

About the toolkit and the good practice guide

The Town and Country Planning Association (TCPA) brought together statutory and non-statutory organisations working in planning, culture, sport, arts and leisure to produce a non-statutory but cross-sector supported planning guide for practitioners in the public, private and charity sectors. It is the first of its kind on planning for culture and sport. See Acknowledgements.

This toolkit is accompanied by 'Improving culture, arts and sporting opportunities through planning: a good practice guide'. It was published in June 2013.

The contents in this toolkit provides an authoritative, although not exhaustive, resource for planners and culture and sport practitioners in England. It is designed to enable them to plan effectively for culture, arts and sport through the planning system, and it demonstrates the art of the possible in using the planning system as a means of achieving local priorities. The guidance provided is non-statutory, but is supported by organisations from across the culture, arts, sport and planning sectors, and its adoption within the planning process is encouraged by these organisations. The approaches detailed in the guide have been developed to support the policies set out in the National Planning Policy Framework.

Using the toolkit

• The toolkit
• It will help practitioners in the voluntary and community sectors to better engage with the planning process in order to ensure that local needs for new or improved facilities and services are delivered through development and regeneration initiatives.
• It will help developers to understand the specific culture and sport provision needs arising from their development, enhance their partnership-working capacity, and provide greater value in return for private-sector investment. Developers have an important partner role in enabling development, through their skills and financial investment; this is recognised in the development of the contents.

Key resources

National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) Checklist for Practitioners, June 2013

Briefing: Local Plan policies on culture, arts and sport

Briefing: Community Infrastructure Levy and infrastructure items

Case studies: Regenerating places and communities through culture, July 2013