Member Newsletter - May 2020

Download a pdf version of this Newsletter here.

What a long time ago the February SGM seems!  Despite the strange times, we made excellent progress with the CLT and the Steering Group continues to meet via Zoom on a monthly basis to oversee everything.  This includes the four founding Directors who can make formal decisions between now and the AGM when we hope to form a more complete board.

Governance

Those of you at the February meeting will recall we set up a small group to look at board size, skills mix, competencies and selection process for consideration at the board/Steering Group meeting in March.   This all went to plan and you can see the results of the group’s work in our Standing Orders, and the new Nomination & Application Form for Directors. See to these documents on the About Us page on our website.

One detail we have clarified in the Standing Orders is how child membership will work: children must sign their own application form and understand the responsibilities of membership which includes voting rights.  For this reason, the minimum age is 11, with parental countersignature required up to the age of 16.

We also now have a Code of Conduct which is also available on the About Us page on our website.

Housing Needs Survey

Thanks to those of you who returned the Housing Needs Survey.  We had a 16% response rate – a little lower than the 2012 survey.   We will have the full results by the time of the AGM.

New members

We had planned to have another Farmers’ Market stall to advertise our existence and encourage people to show their support by joining the CLT.  Obviously that method of recruitment is not open to us at present, but please do mention the idea to friends and neighbours.  The application form can be found here. Applications received by noon on 17 June 2020 can be approved in time for people to have a vote at the AGM.

Director elections

We will be opening nominations for Directors soon. We are now well placed to follow through on the interest generated by our call for Directors in the New Year but if you are not already on the Steering Group but are interested in becoming a Director, please get in touch straight away.

Ford Road project

During the week ‘lockdown’ came in mid-March, two of our Directors had the opportunity to join a virtual presentation of the Norfolk Estate’s Pre-Planning Application proposals. 

These should have been shared in a Public Exhibition on 4 April, but although initial discussions have been held with some nearby neighbours along with representatives from the Town Council, Community Land Trust and Neighbourhood Plan Steering Group, owing to the extraordinary circumstances of the Coronavirus outbreak, the Norfolk Estate have put any further engagement on hold.

In line with its historic commitment to the town, the Norfolk Estate will look forward to resuming their discussions with the wider community on its draft proposals for land off Ford Road, when appropriate, later in the year. See our website for more details in due course.

The extra time gives us opportunity to work on critical aspects of the project with less pressure.  We have now appointed our Registered Provider partner.  This will give us additional expert support from here on, as well as increasing the potential to co-create with all partners, to make sure we get the right affordable housing for local people.

We have set up some sub groups to explore key issues in relation to the Ford Road project:  one involving members with interest and expertise in property and development; one to work on the Local Lettings Policy; a third to think about biodiversity opportunities, and another to influence the quality of community consultation. 

We’ll update you about all this at the AGM.  If you are interested in joining any of these sub groups or any other aspect of this project please Contact us.

AGM

We are planning to hold our AGM virtually in July and look forward to ‘seeing’ all our members then

If you have any questions or want to join the Arundel CLT please Contact Us.