We want to thank everyone who attended the General Meeting at the Chisenhale Art Place, and Chisenhale for hosting the meeting. It was great to meet new people, and everyone’s contributions to the discussions were appreciated.
The meeting was attended by over 50 people, and steering group members gave gave a brief outline of progress to date and summarised the group’s on-going public consultation.
There was discussion of the Forum’s draft constitution, and the meeting then broke up into smaller groups based on geographical area to share local issues that were important to them.
It was agreed that having Forum Ambassadors representing different parts of the neighbourhood would be a good way to reach new people and gather feedback.
As a next step the Forum would like to talk to people who are interested in being a Forum Ambassador. The areas and streets around Mile End Old Town and Fairfield Road already have Ambassadors, but if you live or work near the below streets / estates and related areas and want to help, we would love you to get in touch:
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- Malmesbury Estate
- Tredegar Road
- Antill Road
- Chisenhale Road
- Ranwell Estate
- Old Ford
We would also love to hear from you if you have any experience of charity or voluntary sector communications as the group are looking for a volunteer media officer.
Several suggestions were made to improve the Constitution and these have now been integrated.
During the meeting the following questions were raised by local residents that required further investigation. The Forum’s Committee put these questions to the Council and has the pleasure of sharing their answers here:
1. What does the Council do to scrutinise the management of the Forum and the auditing of its finances?
“The Neighbourhood Planning Regulations don’t require the Council to undertake scrutiny of Forums once they have been established. However there is provision for the Council to revoke the status of a Neighbourhood Forum if we believe that the Forum is no longer fulfilling the requirements of the legislation (i.e. membership had dropped or if the Forum was restricting membership). In addition the Forum is only designated for five years – it has to reapply for designation at that point will again have to fulfil the same requirements as when it was first designated. These two provisions should encourage Forums to maintain records of AGMs and compliance with their constitutions, in case of challenge. In addition, to apply for Department of Communities and Local Government grant the Forum will have to either be incorporated or nominate an incorporated organisation to receive the grant for you – the Forum / receiving organisation will then be subject to the scrutiny and audit processes relevant to their incorporated status.” LBTH
2. Regarding the consultation of the Forum once the Plan is accepted, how will the Council consult the Forum on planning issues? Will they email and write to the Forum about planning applications and potential funds/CIL money?
“Once the Forum is designated, we will add you to our local consultation list for your area – this is what we have done for all other Forums in the borough. The draft Neighbourhood Planning Bill will require councils to consult Neighbourhood Forums on planning applications once an adopted Plan is in place, but we have put the process in place whether or not a Plan is adopted. In the meantime, you can also sign up here to receive planning application notifications.” LBTH
The event will be on Wednesday 31 May at the Interact Hub at which there will be a formal vote on the Constitution (see Event details for more info).