The Neighbourhood Plan Community Steering Group met last Wednesday evening, 9th August. The attendees included 5 local councillors, representatives of local Resident Associations, residents and a representative of the business community in the ward.
The meeting provided an important opportunity to discuss a number of areas arising from the previous meetings and feedback received to date and crucially agree the next steps and priorities for BNAP. The key topics covered included:
- Finalising the steering group’s governance and structure
- Initial analysis of the Neighbourhood Plan feedback received to date
- Establishing a Communications Group to concentrate on, among other things, maximising the outreach to all stakeholders in the Hertford Bengeo ward
- Initiating a set of volunteer Working Groups to start looking at topics that have been identified in feedback and consultation to date.
- Identifying key milestones to enable smooth progress with preparing BNAP.
The key priorities now are to consolidate the formal structure of the group and to start the “real” work of getting the Working Groups into full swing so that consultation feedback can be transformed into draft policies for the plan.
Based on the feedback received so far the initial Working Groups are:
- Homes and development
- Natural environment and green spaces
- Culture and community
- Transport and traffic
- Business
We are now calling for all volunteers interested to be involved in the discussions, consultation and presenting proposals for each of the Working Group. If you have not done so already please get in touch with us and let us know your interest – https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/K9JXTG3 or info@lovebengeo.org.uk
There will be initial discussions within each Working Group in August/September. A training session for Working Group volunteers is planned on Tuesday 12th September evening. More detail to follow.