Neighbourhood Plan Gets £7K Grant Award

Henley Town Council has received £7,000, the maximum grant awarded by Locality UK, in conjunction with the Community Development Foundation, towards supporting the cost of producing the Joint Henley and Harpsden Neighbourhood Plan. The grant will be used specifically to pay for the work of the Consultants, Nexus Planning, who will facilitate the working groups who ultimately will produce the planning policies that will feed into the Plan.

Speaking shortly after the award was announced, Councillor Dieter Hinke, Chair of the Neighbourhood Planning Governance Committee said,” Without the financial support from organisations such as the Community Development Foundation, councils would find it difficult to progress their neighbourhood plans. We are extremely grateful that they have chosen to support us in what we are doing”.

Locality UK provides support and grants to help hundreds of areas across the country create neighbourhood plans, with a £9.5m fund available. To date over 200 Neighbourhood Plan Forums along with Parish and Town Councils have received grants totaling over £1.16m. Town Clerk, Mike Kennedy, said,” I was extremely impressed just how quickly the council’s application was considered. Notification of the Grants Panel’s award took less than 2 days from the time the on-line application was submitted to Locality UK.”

Last week a landowner information session was held by Joint Neighbourhood Plan Committee for twenty land owners and appointed agents promoting sites for housing development. The purpose of the session was to explain the Plan process and timescales to landowners, to encourage them to participate in the Neighbourhood Planning process and to discourage them from submitting early planning applications before the Plan is completed. Landowners will be given the chance to present their sites to the working groups, once fully established, in Autumn 2013.

Public launch events are planned for 7 September in Henley town square and 14 September at the Henley Show. Watch out for this postcard coming through your door. To get involved email info@jhhnp.co.uk