Agenda and draft minutes

Cllr Jacq Paschoud welcomed everyone to the Bellingham Assembly and introduced the other Bellingham Councillors, Cllr Alan Hall and Cllr Sue Hordijenko.

Chris Frazer explained that The Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) is a levy that local authorities can choose to charge on certain new development.  CIL must be spent on infrastructure to support the development of an area, such as for schools, hospitals, roads, open space, and leisure facilities. Lewisham has been collecting CIL since 2015:

2015/16: £1,440,463.66

2016/17: £4,487,774.86

2017/18: £3,359,091.04

The CIL Regulations enable the Council to set aside 15% of CIL receipts     (25% in areas with an adopted neighbourhood plan) to spend on priorities that should be agreed with the local community in areas where development is taking place (NCIL). Mayor & Cabinet agreed to allocate 25% of CIL to NCIL in all wards.

Agreed NCIL Process (Mayor & Cabinet 2019) for the borough is:

Stage 1: Priority setting workshop with ward assemblies (four year cycle)

Stage 2: ‘Open call’ for projects to all Lewisham residents (biennial or annual process)

Stage 3: Evaluate projects and publish long-list (biennial or annual process)

Stage 4: Develop ‘project bank’ by public vote (biennial or annual process)

Stage 5: Allocate and delivery through RCDB and M&C (annual process)

Stage 6: Monitoring, evaluation and reporting (annual process)

Chris then took the assembly through a presentation of the Bellingham NCIL a copy of which is available from paul.gale@lewisham.gov.uk

The current NCIL pot for Bellingham is £48,027.76

The five priorities as identified by Commonplace are:             

•           Community Facilities

•           Transport and Streets

•           Open/Green spaces and nature

•           Community safety

•           Youth activities

There was much discussion around the priorities and concerns were voiced around digital inclusion, particularly in relation to Bellingham ward and a perceived poor response rate to the consultation. However, it was accepted that the priorities broadly reflected the needs of Bellingham, but that it would be beneficial to have an additional priority specifically aimed at more vulnerable people within the community. It was accepted that we need to look at digital consultation and how the consultation was publicised.

The assembly agreed the following 6 priorities for Bellingham ward:

•           Community Facilities / Development

•           Transport and Streets

•           Open/Green spaces and nature

•           Community safety

•           Youth activities

•           Supporting our vulnerable people within the community

Ward Boundaries - Cllr Hall reminded the assembly of the proposed boundary changes and that Bellingham could become a 2 Councillor ward.

For more information and interactive maps, visit:

https://consultation.lgbce.org.uk/ or

http://www.lgbce.org.uk./

Alternatively you can write to:

Review Officer (Lewisham), LGBCE, 1st Floor, Windsor

House, 50 Victoria Street, London, SW1H 0TL

Email: reviews@lgbce.org.uk

St Dunstan’s Church – On Friday 21 February from 7pm there is a curry and quiz night at the Church. This is to raise funds for the church roof. St Dunstan’s do a great deal of work in the community, but this is limited with the current roof issues. The Church also wants to install solar panels.