30JUN14

The Highams Park Plan

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The Highams Park Plan now has its own Website.

Please click this link to go to the dedicated site for the very latest information: www.highamsparkplan.org

The information below is acurate as at 03JUN14 but will gradually become
out of date compared to the dedicated Highams Park Plan site. ***************************************************************************************

Introduction

This is an exciting and unique opportunity in the history of Highams Park.

Highams Park has been chosen as one of a limited number of communities across the country to create a Plan to define its future, covering all aspects of life in Highams Park. We have been awarded a £20k grant from central government to assist with the costs of creating the plan. This initiative is driven by residents, for residents, and we want as many people to be involved as possible. All ages and backgrounds. We want everyone's ideas. Your idea could be the one that makes all the difference.

The Plan will initiate projects that will change Highams Park. Some will be small and short term. Some will be large and longer term. We have a blank sheet of paper. We want lots of ideas. We want your ideas !

The Plan is being created by The Highams Park Planning Group. This residents' organisation was initially set up by The Highams Park Forum and The Highams Park Society, but it operates completely independently from those organisations.

If you are interested in this project but haven't participated to date, don't worry, its not too late. Please contact the organisers on the following email address:



Latest News (as at 03JUN14)

See below for descriptions and documents from the First General Meeting (17th Jan 2014) and the Launch Event (16th Nov 2013). Following these events, around 120 members, formed into 11 Topic Working Groups (TWGs - created at the General Meeting), have been busy meeting in houses, pubs and clubs to brainstorm, and add to, the ideas that were suggested at the Launch Event. This work to finalise the ideas lists was completed on time (in accordance with our self imposed deadline) at the end of April'14.

The Coordinating Committee then met in early May to fine tune the lists (eliminating duplication and repositioning some ideas between Groups). The Coordinating Committee then brainstormed "cross topic" and as a result contributed some additional ideas. The expanded lists were then fed back to the TWGs for the next stage of the process. The Groups are now meeting to work through their lists to examine each idea in detail and agree how to progress each one. Some of the simpler projects suggested are being commenced by the TWGs for consultation and delivery as soon as is possible. In parallel with this, the TWGs are starting to expand the bulk of the ideas into practical projects and policies which will end up in the plan for Highams Park.

The Planning Group will have a stand at Highams Park Day on Saturday 12th July 2014 where residents will be able to see the work so far and give their views.


The First General Meeting 17th January 2014

On Friday 17th January 2014, the first General Meeting of the Highams Park Planning Group took place. The meeting was extremely well attended (the venue, All Saints Church Hall, was full), and this formally marks the start of the project.

The meeting unanimously approved:
a) a constitution for the group and
b) the boundary around Highams Park which defines the area which the plan will cover.

The meeting then unanimously elected a Coordinating Committee of 11 members (incl. Chair, Deputy Chair, Secretary, and Treasurer).

The main work of the group will be performed by 11 Topic Working Groups. Each made up of a number of members interested in a specific topic. These groups were agreed at the end of the General Meeting and attendees signed up for roles in one or more groups. They then agreed the dates and times of their first meetings. The creation of the plan has truly started !

Documents from the Meeting:
(Please download and save the documents to help reduce the load on the website. Thanks)

1) Constitution
2) Boundary
3) Organisation of the Group
4) Coordinating Committee Members
5) The 11 Topic Working Groups
6) Roles on the Topic Working Groups


The Launch Event - 16th November 2013

A Launch Event took place on Saturday 16th November 2013 to explain the plan to local people and to seek volunteers to help create the plan. The Event had the tag line "Our Highams Park - Shaping the Future".

The Launch Event was considered a huge success, with around 400 people attending. People left contact details and the organisers are now dealing with the practical matters of organising the impressive army of volunteers to work on the plan. This is well in hand and work on the plan proper will begin in January (2014).

The links below contain a selection of videos and documents which help explain the plan and might interest you:

1) A slide show was shown at the Launch Event to explain all about the Highams Park Plan. You can view a video of that slide show on YouTube by clicking this link: YouTube Video 1

2) After the slide show, visitors were invited to view a series of display boards showing suggestions for topics the plan might cover. Under these topics, visitors were encouraged to pin up ideas to be included in the plan. To give you a feel for what went on, a random selection of topics and ideas has been collated into a short video. You can view a video of that slide show on YouTube by clicking this link: YouTube Video 2
(and yes, I know, the bouncing is very irritating !)

3) Click on the images below to see larger copies of the launch event publicity leaflet and the ideas tree.


4) If I volunteer, how much time will it take? The Answer is: "As much or as little as you can spare". Even a small amount would be valuable. The following diagram shows how the volunteers might be organised. You'll see that there's lots of scope for different levels of involvement: Volunteer organisation diagram

5) Visitors to the event were handed a contact form to fill in to register their interest in the project. If you'd like to get involved please email your details to us and we'll get in touch. Don't worry about trying to fill in the form electronically.
Click here if you'd like to see the form: Contact Form

6) Visitors to the event were handed a takeaway leaflet as they left, both as a reminder and for them to give to neighbours who couldn't attend.
Click here to see the Takeaway leaflet: Takeaway leaflet

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