Is there a maximum population size for a Neighbourhood Plan?  Our local town council is classed as a ‘parish council’ although the town has a population of about 36,000.  We want to start discussions about a Neighbourhood Plan with our town council but need to be absolutely clear about how a ‘neighbourhood’ is defined.  Ideally we would want one plan to cover the whole town.  Can we do this for a relatively large population?

There are no hard and fast rules - it is down to whether the local authority will agree with you about the boundary.  It will be a brave local authority that would try and get in the way of a civic society and town council who are united in what they want for their neighbourhood plan. 

Do join other civic societies and town councils in taking advantage of the free support available from the like of Locality http://locality.org.uk/projects/building-community/ and CPRE/NALC http://www.cpre.org.uk/magazine/features/item/2350-planning-help-supporting-communities-and-neighbourhoods-in-planning on neighbourhood planning and similar projects