NEIGHBOURHOOD PLANNING

The Neighbourhood Plan

​The Limehouse Community Forum (LCF) is a designated neighbourhood planning forum. Designated by Tower Hamlets Council, the ‘Limehouse Neighbourhood Planning Forum’ as it is officially known, is preparing a comprehensive Neighbourhood Plan.

The purpose of the Neighbourhood Plan is to provide a framework and a set of policies against which all planning applications should be judged. This is of crucial importance to the preservation of our Limehouse neighbourhood identity, whilst at the same time recognising the needs of a growing population.
​
Four planning priority topics have been established: 

• green infrastructure: The multi-functional, interdependent network of open and green spaces connecting to the surrounding countryside.

• housing & heritage: Providing a balance of private, affordable, social, new and heritage  housing.

• services & facilities: Establishing a sustainable community for Limehouse that includes health services, schooling, markets and daytime activities, the regeneration of areas surrounding the Limehouse Basin, youth wellbeing and English language training.

• retail & employment: Providing a proportional mix of retail, commercial, civic and other employment sites within the neighbourhood

The LNPF is made up entirely of volunteers and we URGENTLY need more members to help produce the Neighbourhood Plan document. The key skills we need include:

• Graphic Design skills including computer applications such as Gimp, Adobe Acrobat, Photoshop and others, to help us design the plan and related information campaigns 

• Experience in town planning to ensure the Neighbourhood Plan is optimised for the Limehouse Ward and works within the parameters of the borough’s Local Plan

• Background or expertise in architecture or related areas such as civic engineering and design.

• Writing skills to ensure our Plan is grammatically correct and easily understood.

How much work effort is needed?
As volunteers with busy lives, we have to try to balance the demands of the task against members’ availability.  Generally the work can be done at home with internet access. Physical meetings to review progress are currently held monthly and informal meetings can be held by phone or over a coffee as needed.  We rely heavily on email to keep things moving between meetings.    
In order to plan our project, we need to ask volunteers to give us an indication of likely availability per month, so that tasks are allocated appropriately. 

Interested?  
If you’d like to participate, please contact lee.carr@limehouse.info for more information