who can canvass for a neighbourhood plan referendum?

Question

One of our councillors said that Parish Councillors cannot canvass in an Neighbourhood Plan referendum, is she right?

Answer 1

She is wrong.

Any individual or group can campaign in a referendum.

They can spend £2362 + (0.059p per elector). Records of spending must be made and returned to the district council in the same way as an election expense.

Whilst the parish council itself SHOULD NOT be an active campaigner in the referendum (code s4(1) LGA 1986), they can state whether they support it or not.

But the councillors can, as a individuals outside of the parish council structure, run a campaign for or against.

Comments

Thanks for this

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We found the biggest problem was ensuring we had a good turnout, and that villages were fully aware of the referendum taking place.

The stats on it passing are encouraging though.

Key statistics (May 2019) Ministry of HCLG
Over 750 successful neighbourhood planning referendums have taken place.
The average ‘yes’ vote is 89%.
The average turnout is 32%
Over 800,000 votes have been cast.
Over 170 (51% of total local planning authorities) have at least one successful neighbourhood plan referendum

Then all you have to do is keep the plan up to date (every 5 years) to ensure it is not over ridden by newer policies, or the 5 year land supply problem that is often manipulated by developers to their own ends.