HOW JOHN GILLETT AND THE NEIGHBOURHOOD FORUM PROTECT US

For the last 5 years Mill Hill has seen huge improvements.  John Gillett and his committee of hard working local people have delivered a Town Square, Markets, step free access, and produced the brilliant Town guide, helped promote all our shops and restaurants plus brought hanging baskets to the Broadway and encouraged local events.  (See photos below)

However, the main job that has been taking place has been the writing of the Neighbourhood Plan.  This plan is 90% finished and is a complex planning document.  To write such a plan hundreds of hours of meetings and training had to be gone through.  John Gillett has done this.  An unpaid role.

In the whole of the uk only 13 plans have so far been completed due to their complexity and time requirements.

In Mill Hill we are lucky that John Gillett has shown such commitment.

Next Wednesday the Council need to renew the forum in order to complete the plan.  This should be a formality.  The Neighbourhood Forum plan is 90% done and is huge in its scope.  No council in the UK has failed to renew when the plan is so close to fruition.

However,  there are major property development people who don’t want the plan to be completed by John Gillett. They want to build on the Greenbelt, they know the Neighbourhood Plan makes that 100 times more difficult.   In fact if they can stop the plan then it becomes a free for all like it is at present.

So it is in all our interests that the plan is completed and our council are not influenced by big money.

Needless to say some local activists would love to see the plan fail because they want to see our area crash and burn so they can blame the Council for it.  They put their own egos and self interest before that of the area.  The fields on the hill are at risk of housing and we will see 10 storey building all round the village if the plan is not renewed by the council.   Yes, it would lead to our local councillors being voted out at the next election but for those of us who love the Village it will be forever at risk and ruined.

We are completely non political but we will campaign on issues of poverty and green issues which this is about.

Tomorrow we will bring you the Council advice. We will then see whether they are in the pockets of developers or are in favour of us, the local residents.    We expect the Neighbourhood Forum to be renewed. Compared to others in the uk it has been amazingly successful.  Thousands have been brought together on the Broadway at events, a new Town Square , the first community space in over a 100 years, a glossy town guide listing every business for free !!  The area has bucked the depression that most areas have seen in the last few years.

So come back tomorrow for the Council decision.