POPPLETON is set to be the first community in York to take greater power over local planning policies through a neighbourhood plan.

City of York Council says that after 91.3 per cent of local people voted in a referendum that they wanted the council to use the Upper and Nether Poppleton Neighbourhood Plan to help decide planning applications, the council executive is expected to give the plan full legal force at its meeting next Thursday.

A spokesman said Government rules introduced in 2012 gave local communities greater powers to create their own plans and policies.

Plans must have regard to national planning policy and be in conformity with strategic policies in the development plan for the area.

Cllr Ian Gillies, executive member for planning, said the people of Poppleton were ‘blazing a trail’ which many more communities were set to follow, with 14 more neighbourhood plans in development across the city. “We know that local people understand their communities and need a voice in how they develop,” he said. “As the local planning authority, we work closely with all these communities and support them throughout the various stages of the plan process.”

Cllr Gillies is also set to formalise the creation of the city’s first Neighbourhood Forum and plan area at his decision-making session on the same day, with the Neighbourhood Forum driving the consultation over a neighbourhood plan for Micklegate.