Neighbourhood Plan

Although this has been discussed at West Marsh Forward meetings I thought it would be a good idea to give a written account of why we need a Neighbourhood Plan for the West Marsh Ward.
Firstly we need to get a bit of context.
In the past there have been all sorts of plans for areas which Government see as deprived. So under the last Government we saw some of our wards benefit from Neighbourhood Renewal Funding and as part of that process each of the ten wards affected in North East Lincolnshire ended up with a Neighbourhood Investment Plan which was arrived at in consultation with local people.
On paper that all sounds good but the downside was that the plan was effectively based around the services provided by all of the main Public Sector bodies and did not, in my opinion, really focus on what the residents of the ten wards would like to see change over the long term in their neighbourhoods. Further than that, all of it tended to be led by officers of Public Sector bodies whose job it was to make sure particular outcomes set by Central Government were achieved which sometimes meant that what residents wanted took a back seat.
So what I am suggesting we should try to achieve is a plan which is led by the people in the Ward area based on what they know are the priorities and looking at dealing with what residents see as the root causes of the problems they are trying to solve.
In order to start the process I have been in discussion with Councillor Billard to look at the most pressing issues that the West Marsh faces and these include:

1. Empty Housing and Commercial premises.
2. Health and Social Care Inequalities.
3. Street Scene and Environmental issues.
4. Positive Activities to engage all young people in the Ward.
5. Parks and Open Spaces and their management.
6. Anti-Social Behaviour at all levels.
7. Criminal Activity.

This list does not describe all of the issues which residents see as important but it does represent a good starting point around which to have discussion with all interested parties to see what might be done to tackle the problems in the short term and then to look at the root causes and agree a long term plan for solving the problem.
The main reason for even attempting to do this is to get to the point where we can show how all the West Marsh organisations and community activists currently contribute to the solving of problems and dealing with issues on the West Marsh. Once this is done then when applying for funding any organisation or individual with an idea for a positive intervention or project for the development of the West Marsh ward will be able to show where they fit in and how it helps the overall plan.
I hope this helps make the case for coming up with a plan and I also hope that interested people will contact me and let me know their feelings and thoughts about the priorities for the plan.