Neighbourhood Plan group wins £4,365 grant

LYMM Neighbourhood Plan Working Group has won a grant of £4,365 to help them create a legally enforceable plan to help shape the village over the next 20 years.
The grant has come from Locality – a national network of community-led organisations – on behalf of the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.
It will be used towards the cost of consultancy support and printing as the working group develops the Neighbourhood Plan.
The group is made up of volunteers who are passionate about ensuring the local community’s wishes are heard when planning applications in the Lymm area are considered.
Jonathan Foreman, deputy chairman of the working group, said: “Our next steps are to start gathering evidence on the five main themes of ‘Environment, Design and Character’, ‘Housing’, ‘Community, Leisure and Wellbeing’, ‘Economy and Employment’ and ‘Transport’.
“We need a site for a permanent display in the village, so that those without internet access are kept informed. We also need to create an email database so we can keep residents up to date.
“We rely on the involvement of as many volunteers as possible to collect information towards developing the plan. We want to identify what is important to residents including the types of homes they will want in the future, employment opportunities and community facilities needed.”
Lymm needs a legally enforceable neighbourhood plan if it is to have any save on development over the next 20 years.
The parish council is encouraging and supporting the working group – but it is the working group that must prepare the plan.
The grant will enable the working group to produce a vision statement and a detailed questionnaire for residents.
The Neighbourhood Plan Vision Statement will cover what residents hope the area will look like, what facilities will be needed and what Lymm will be like in the future, to live and work within.
This vision will play an important role in the development of the Neighbourhood Plan and its policies.
The working group will also create, print and distribute a newsletter which will report on the many opinions, hopes and aspirations collected from the community and will be an opportunity to publish the proposed vision statement for Lymm.
Cheshire Community Action, the leading provider of neighbourhood planning support in the county, has been appointed to provide consultancy support to the working group.
Anyone who would like to offer help in any way should contact the working group through the website www.lymmplan.org.