What We Do

Introduction

The Sustainable Community Strategy for East Sussex

The East Sussex Local Area Agreement (LAA)

Community Planning and Local Strategic Partnerships in East Sussex

Local people the chance to shape local services and the places where they live, work and spend their leisure time through community planning. We see it as a way of helping communities become safer, stronger, healthier, wealthier and more sustainable in the long-term.

There are five district and boroughs in East Sussex (Eastbourne, Hastings, Lewes, Rother and Wealden). Each of these has a Local Strategic Partnership (LSP) which, like ESSP, coordinates community planning and partnership working in their own areas.

Details of the district and borough LSPs are available from their individual websites.

Each of the five district and borough councils, in partnership with their LSP, are responsible for producing the Sustainable Community Strategy for their area. These strategies are set out in Pride of Place, the Sustainable Community Strategy for East Sussex. They are informed by a variety of other local and regional plans in your area, including:

• Local action plans
  Each district and borough in East Sussex works in different ways to involve local communities. Some work with geographic areas such as wards, neighbourhoods and parishes, others have action groups which focus on issues such as transport, health or housing.
  
• Parish and neighbourhood plans
  Parish and neighbourhood planning gives local people the opportunity to get involved in planning the future of their neighbourhood, town or village and surrounding countryside. A parish or neighbourhood plan is a document that deals with important issues that affect your area. This could be anything from creating more activities for young people to developing better community facilities to improving access to public transport. The final plan should identify important facilities and services, set out the problems that need to be tackled and include an action plan. It will be used to inform community strategies and Local Development Frameworks for your district.
  
• Local Development Frameworks
  As part of the new planning system in England, local authorities had to prepare a Local Development Framework (LDF) by 2007. This ‘framework’ is a collection of policies and plans affecting a local area and, in East Sussex, each of the five districts and boroughs has its own LDF. Your LDF will, for example, guide how much development there is in your area, where it is located and what infrastructure services are need to support it.
  
• Regional plans and strategies
  There are a number of South East plans and strategies affecting your local area, covering a wide range of issues including housing, transport, sustainable development, agriculture and farming, economic development, health and tourism. For a list of regional plans go to the Government Office South East website.