Our History
We exist because, in 2011, the Government introduced the Localism Act. This change in planning law gave local communities new powers to determine how they want to see their Area develop.
A Neighbourhood Plan is enshrined in planning law. Local Authorities (in our case Solihull Council) must incorporate a community’s Neighbourhood Plan into their own processes and decision making relating to planning permission.
In Knowle, Dorridge and Bentley Heath, we don’t have a Parish Council. So instead we had to create a Neighbourhood Forum to lead development of a Plan for our villages. A Neighbourhood Forum is a statutory body – which means that it, too, is recognised in law.
The creation of both our Forum and the Neighbourhood Plan was a rigorous process, it took over 6 months for us to get the KDBH Forum approved and established ourselves as a Limited Company in 2015.
Our first role was to bring together the community via the Forum to create a Neighbourhood Plan that sets conditions (policies) for new development specifically relating to our villages.
To best secure the credibility and support of our local community, stakeholders, and potential funders that will be key to the success in implementing the KDBH Neighbourhood Plan, the Forum became a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) with Registered Charity Number 1190521.