Photo : 5th Chapel Allerton Arts Festival 2002.
Chapel Allerton has recently been identified as one of the best places to live – and rightly so. This is not just down to a great location in the city, large number of beautiful old buildings, lovely parks and spaces with mature trees, but the efforts of local people, groups and organisations over the years coming together to protect and make better the place in which we live.
We now have an opportunity under the Localism Act 2011 to develop, consult and deliver a Neighbourhood Plan to influence how the area will develop in the future. Some communities have used these powers to buy and run local pubs, define arrangements for car parking and create community green spaces.
The new planning framework would give Chapel Allerton residents and businesses a powerful voice to shape our neighbourhood.
A Plan could include:
• HOUSING – The right development in the right place? Is there sufficient supply of affordable housing? What do we want -more family houses with gardens? More flats for young professionals? More Extra Care housing for our older residents?
• COMMUNITY ASSETS – Previous consultations identified the lack of services for young people in the area; is there sufficient child care? Can local services such as the library be further developed to meet local needs? Do we need more GPs and other health services?
• ENVIRONMENT – How can the local community help in cleaning up the air we breath? Can we improve our green areas – the verges, graveyard, parks? Can we do better at reducing waste and recycling?
• TRANSPORT – What can we do to make the area more bike and pedestrian friendly?
Government funding is available to support the development of Neighbourhood Plans because there is a lot of work involved. For any of this to happen, a group of enthusiastic and committed local people is needed to create a new Neighbourhood Forum. Guidance suggests that this needs to be a partnership of residents, local businesses and services – and needs to involve a minimum of 21 active members.
Come along to the meeting to see if you would like to be involved in this process or simply to make your views known on what is important to you about our neighbourhood.