Drawing from findings from the Just Neighbourhoods? research, the paper examines how one former mining neighbourhood in Doncaster utilised neighbourhood planning as a mechanism to negotiate experiences of everyday local injustice and shape future development. The relationship between participation, power and influence within community-led planning activity in a neighbourhood experiencing long-term deprivation and industrial decline is explored to reveal a neighbourhood far from disengaged. Residents mobilised around a strong sense of identity, heritage and concern for quality of life. They produced an ambitious neighbourhood plan centring on environmental restoration, heritage protection and the creation of a country park around the town’s historic mining headstocks. The process generated high levels of participation and contributed towards attracting wider regeneration investment through the Towns Fund. Yet, despite extensive local involvement and the formal status of neighbourhood planning, participants repeatedly described feeling that key decisions continued to be shaped elsewhere. Drawing on literatures of social justice, participation and relational power, the paper argues that the case exposes a persistent gap between participation and influence. While neighbourhood planning may create opportunities for communities to articulate locally grounded priorities, wider institutional constraints, political dynamics and development pressures continue to dominate realisation. The paper highlights how ‘participation’ or co-production in planning is insufficient to deliver more just neighbourhoods.