Weekly Digest: March 17th 2018

As previewed last week, I’d like to spend most of this week updating you on the outputs of the Steering Group workshop held 10 days ago. I spent time this week in the office catching up with the outputs and…. there are a lot. I took a couple of pictures and attached them below so you can get an idea of the work going on and the state of the office! As you can see our work plan dominates the place – but it provides focus for the next 6 months or so. I’ve summarised the main work streams into 2 themes

  1. Neighbourhood Plan. Theme 1: Geographic focus

This theme takes a geographic perspective. We have divided up our Area into 7 blocs split into 2 sections – 4 undeveloped blocs and 3 community areas

  • The undeveloped blocs are:
    • Land west of Toton/Stapleford Lane (between Cleve Ave and A52, down to the Sidings): this is all of the land currently with the Strategic Growth Area
    • Land east of Toton Lane/north of tram terminus (including Bardills and nearby businesses) all the way north to Bramcote and west to Inham Road, Chilwell
    • Land east of Stapleford Lane/south of tram terminus (backing Katherine Drive/Barracks: all the way to Field Lane, Chilwell
    • Land within Chetwynd Barracks.

§  We want to treat these blocs separately as: some have planning permission already (west of Toton Lane); some don’t yet have planning permission, but we know will be developed (Barracks); some are green belt and so may never be developed. We must consider all areas and ensure our views for the long term are included

  • The community areas are:
    • Chilwell West ward
    • Chilwell Meadows
    • Toton

§  We need to consider what, if any, sites there are within these areas (such as the ex-Manor Garage site at the bottom of the High Road) that could be redeveloped and if so how? We also need to assess impacts on these areas arising from development elsewhere, such as the noise mitigation measures needed for the Banks Road area when HS2 comes along.

2. Neighbourhood Plan. Theme 2: Topic focus

This theme is based on the various topics that cover across the area. We’ve identified, in no particular order, the following:

  • Schools (infant, primary, secondary, 6th form)
  • Shops/Community Centre, inc. heritage – a central focus for the Barracks area
  • Community facilities (library, health centre/dentist, allotments, leisure both indoor and outdoor etc.)
  • Housing (design, styles, sustainability, locations)
  • Infrastructure (roads, public transport, cycle ways, footpaths, utilities)
  • Business (existing, new)
  • Environment (green spaces, wildlife corridors, local reserves, flood plains)

§  For each of these topics we need to decide what is needed and where. And provide the backing evidence necessary to justify our proposals

3.   Your chance to get involved!

We have asked you before to let us know if you’d like to help us develop our Plan. And we haven’t followed through when you stuck your hands up. Apologies for that.

Now is the time, however, when we really do need help. Each of the geographic blocs and topics are led by members of the Steering Group. Their first task is to decide what activities are needed and how best to carry them out.

If you are interested in any of these blocs/topics, please get in touch and let us know. We’ll collate the names and pass them on to the relevant leader who will then get back to you to explain how you’ll be able to help and when.  Many thanks

4.      Stakeholder meetings

As mentioned last week that we are arranging a number of meetings with significant landowners in our Area.

On Tuesday we held a very useful meeting with Heart Church, who are based in Talbot Street, Nott’m. The church owns approx. 56 acres of land mostly to the west of Stapleford Lane, backing Cleve Ave. 

The main thing we learned is that the church want to see the land developed as per the current permission for 500 houses. They believe the ideas contained in the East Midlands HS2 Growth Strategy Plan are too speculative and uncertain. Furthermore, they believe that if the Strategy does take off, it will still be a long, long time before it is delivered. They are looking to sell their land in the next couple of years rather than wait perhaps 5-10 years.

We are now arranging meetings with two further stakeholders with interest in land to the west of Stapleford/Toton Lane: UKPP (Toton) and Peveril. I’ll keep you updated on progress

5.      And finally…

Richard and Graham attended the Council’s Jobs and Economy meeting on Thursday. The main item of interest for us was the publication of the latest 2017/2018 SHLAA (Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment) report. This is a hefty document but is worth a read if you are interested in the Council’s long term thoughts on where houses could be built. It does consider, with caveats, options for the green belt in our Area (see pages 30, 31). Hence the need for us to assess & include all green belt land in our Plan.

The rearranged Toton and Chilwell Meadows CAT meeting will be held on Thursday 22 March at 7.30pm at Toton Methodist Church

 Friends of Toton Fields are holding their annual ‘spring clean’ of Toton Fields on Sunday 25th March between 10.00 and 12.00 noon at Greenwood Centre, Chester Green. If you can spare a couple of hours, please come along and help tidy up the reserve. You can also have a look at the new ponds that have been created as well as the newly constructed / improved paths

And that is more than enough for this week. Another lengthy edition, I’m afraid, but I wanted to keep you informed of our work plan for the next 6 months. Please stick your hand up if you’d like to help us in this task – it will be much appreciated. 

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