The Holbeck Neighbourhood Forum was officially established to deliver a Neighbourhood Plan for Holbeck. A forum designation lasts for 5 years and as such the designation of the forum need to be renewed.
Holbeck was selected as a frontrunner neighbourhood planning area in March 2012, one of four in Leeds. The aim was to ensure that everyone in the community has the opportunity to be involved in the making of the Plan and in March 2018 a referendum took place. A ‘yes’ vote involving residents and local businesses enabled the plan to be accepted and approved by LCC. A renewal of the governance and organisational structure of the forum is key to continuing the valuable collaborative work undertaken to date. The re-designation of the forum requires a formal planning application and notices have been posted in October 2020.
It is expected that the renewal of this local forum will allow us to identify through a Priority Plan, areas that are important locally, including bidding for funding and continuing cross service co-operation such as planning, regeneration, highways, developers, landowners and community teams. Since the plan has been made this holistic approach to regeneration in Holbeck through community actions and partnerships has proved successful and recognised nationally as best practice. This was recognised when in 2019 the Holbeck Neighbourhood Plan jointly won the national planning award for neighbourhood planning.
You can find full details of the application to redesignate the forum by clicking here, where you can also complete a short survey. The closing date for the consultation is Wednesday 9 December 2020.
The Forum is committed to widening community participation and our constitution has been amended to include membership to anyone with an interest in Holbeck to join. Existing membership is representative of the area as it includes a cross section of residents, businesses and other stakeholders. However it is recognised that more residents are needed.
New members are able to join the Forum by emailing bertiedog2000@yahoo.co.uk. If you are interested in helping to make Holbeck a better place to live and work then you will be most welcome. The Plan can be accessed through our web page at: holbeckneighbourhoodplan.org.uk.
This post was written by Dennis Kitchen
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