People stood in a line smiling at the camera in front of a gazebo. There is also a dog

During 2024-25 we asked customers what matters to them and what they’d like to see in their neighbourhood. We also spoke to local businesses, charities and services. In 2025 we pulled everyone’s views together and published neighbourhood plans for each of the 54 neighbourhoods we serve. The completed neighbourhood plans reflected what people told us and set out how we’d make a positive contribution to individual neighbourhoods and help build strong communities over the year.

Our approach

The neighbourhood plans are part of our wider approach which aims to work in a more localised way and put customers at the heart of what we do by listening to, and acting on, their views. We previously called this our community-based approach.

Following feedback from customers and a review with colleagues, we’re changing the way we describe how we work locally. From now on we’ll call this work our neighbourhood approach.

This change reflects what customers and colleagues have told us matters to them: a clear focus on place, the people who live there, and the practical actions that make neighbourhoods good places to live. While the name is changing, our commitment to place and community remains at the heart of everything we do.

What’s happened with neighbourhood plans so far

Since we launched the neighbourhood plans, we’ve learned more about the people and communities in the areas we serve.

People told us they’d like to see more community events, neighbourhood watches and litter picking. They were also concerned about a lack of local services.

As a result of the feedback this year, we’ve:

  • set up community action days and litter picking to improve the environment and help people get to know each other
  • tried out different ways of meeting people where they live – from local drop ins to a new Housing Hub
  • helped reduce dog fouling issues
  • worked in partnership with local councils to help resolve pests/vermin issues
  • worked in partnership with neighbourhood policing teams to reduce anti-social driving
  • created a fruit orchard
  • been working to reduce neighbourhood nuisance caused by youths

What’s happening next

Over the coming year, we’ll be reviewing each neighbourhood plan. As part of the review in each neighbourhood, we’ll:

  • share a feedback document about what’s happened since we published the first neighbourhood plan – this will include any actions we’ve taken in response to the initial feedback we received, as well as how we’ve shaped local services.
  • ask customers who live in that area for feedback – this will be an opportunity for people to say what they’d like us to focus on next. We’ll share a short survey to help gather feedback.
  • share updates about any events or neighbourhood walkabouts we’ll be hosting in that area
  • create and share a new neighbourhood plan based on this year’s feedback – this will show actions for us to work on and the priorities that matter most to customers in that area.

The first neighbourhood plan reviews are already underway for Armley Grange Mount, Otter Island, Armley, The Arthingtons, Belle Isle, East Ardsley, Middleton and Rothwell, Robin Hood and Oulton.

Your Neighbourhood Officer will be in touch with you to let you know when your neighbourhood plan is ready to be reviewed.

Merging neighbourhood plans based on local feedback

When we originally developed the first neighbourhood plans we identified 54 separate areas based on geography. By speaking to customers, and analysing the feedback we received, we realised that some areas we’d previously separated because they were further away from each other faced similar issues. Because of this, we’ll be merging some areas together which means by the end of the year we’ll have reduced the number of neighbourhood plans to 30.

We don’t want to lose the individuality of different places so if there are specific actions or customer feedback affecting a smaller area within a wider neighbourhood, we’ll continue to capture these within the merged neighbourhood plans. Your Neighbourhood Officer will let you know if you live in an area where your neighbourhood plan is merging with another area.

Share your feedback at any time

We plan to continue reviewing individual neighbourhood plans on an annual basis but if you have feedback to share outside the formal reviews you can:

You can also visit your neighbourhood page on Your Voice to find out what’s happening in your local area:

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