It’s been a couple of months since our last official website update, but hopefully you’ve been keeping tabs on us via Facebook and the Together Magazine updates. As the Call for Sites came out last week, and our housing needs survey makes real progress, we thought a quick update on some key points would be in order!

Call for Sites

Last Friday (16th May) Westmorland & Furness Council published the initial responses to the Call for Sites. Multiple sites in and around Greystoke and surrounding areas have been submitted. As we shared in January at our public meeting, our potential site is one of those. What next? The council will now begin assessing all the sites submitted to see if they are suitable for development. Some sites will be ruled out in that process, which follows a well defined methodology. We’ll find out the results of that process in the Autumn, when there will be a public consultation. We’ve pulled together some key links and data for anyone interested in learning more about the process here: https://greystokeclt.org.uk/links/#W_F_Call_for_Sites

Housing Needs Survey

As mentioned in the latest Together magazine, Action with Communities in Cumbria are working with us and the Parish Council to draw up a confidential and independent housing needs survey. We hope to distribute this near the end of June / start of July. The survey is absolutely critical in helping us understand the housing needs (not just affordable) of the community and will help inform what housing we need. It’s really important that as many people as possible fill this in.

Establishing the Community Land Trust

Meanwhile we continue to work to establish the Community Land Trust as an official Community Benefits Society and are currently reviewing the draft model rules for incorporation.

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Early consultation summary

We have had a huge amount of support for the ambition to build affordable housing, and that is really heartening – and confirms the results of the housing survey last year. But we knew this was never going to be easy, nor without challenges. The feedback we’ve received, particularly on the potential site, has really helped us to focus on our next steps.

1 – Flooding

We always knew flood risk on the potential site would be an issue – and a challenge that we would have to try to overcome. And let’s be absolutely clear – if anything we would do on that site would make flooding in Howard Park worse, then we will not even recommend it to the community. As a housing group we are committed to that, as are Anna and Henry. What the feedback has clearly shown us is that the existing flooding situation in Howard Park is much worse than we, at least, realised. Something must be done to address it, and we want to work with residents, the Parish Council, Judith Derbyshire and relevant authorities to look for solutions to the wider problem. Ian is leading on this piece of work for us.

There will be a meeting being organised on this subject by Judith, and when we know more we’ll share details.

2 – Carry out a Housing Needs Survey

We will progress with a housing needs survey. This is fundamental to the question of not just affordable housing, but housing needs in general. It will give us answers to what sort of housing, and how much of it, we need. In conjunction with Action for Communities in Cumbria we will be producing a survey in the next few months. Watch this space for much more detail on this soon. Corrine is leading on this piece of work for us.

3 – Establish the Community Land Trust

The Community Land Trust (CLT) is a legal entity (a ‘Community Benefit Society’) which can hold assets in trust for the community. It is a membership organisation, where members have a vote in all key decisions. This is how we will be accountable to the wider community. This is how the community can join together to make ourselves heard. The CLT has the potential to be a really powerful voice in future housing discussions – the more members we have, the stronger that voice will be. We have a funding application submitted to allow us to incorporate as a formal body, with our own bank account – and then we can open up membership. Allan is leading on this piece of work for us.

Q&A

As a reminder we have a lot of questions from the public meeting and the drop is sessions – and you can read them on the website.

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Drop in sessions

Following last year’s survey where the village overwhelmingly supported an objective to create additional affordable housing, our first public meeting on Thursday and the café surgeries represent the next phase in our consultation process. We are totally committed to the involvement of the whole community, and it was great to see so many of you at our first drop in on Monday, with support, questions and challenges for us. We will be there again next week – and throughout all of February at the very least – to talk to as many of you as possible. If you can’t make it, email us at greystokecommunitygroup@gmail.com or comment below and we’ll make sure to catch up with you.

Housing Needs Survey and volunteers

There will be a Housing Needs Survey coming out this year – and we need you to fill it in so we can answer some fundamental questions – such as how many houses do we need? We would reiterate our call for others with an interest or skills to get involved – especially at the moment those with financial or legal experience.

Our vision and values

Our objective is to enhance the community and that’s why we welcome – and need – your input. A reminder of our vision and values – and how a Community Land Trust (CLT) works here: https://greystokeclt.org.uk/news/values-vision/ We are working with Eden Housing Association because they share those values.

Our aim will be to provide affordable, local homes. Homes will be:

Our work will engage as much of the community as possible, contributing to a healthy future for the parish.

The CLT will earn the trust of the community through open, inclusive decision-making and we will respect the views of others. We are planning to make sure that the Community Land Trust continues to provide benefits for the local community long into the future.

Make sure you get your vote in what happens

Meanwhile we continue to progress forming a Community Land Trust – membership will cost £1 for life and gives you a vote in all key decisions. Sign up to our mailing list now so that you get notified when membership opens – and also of any important news on the website in the interim. We do also post on Facebook so please follow us if you are over there.

This is all about trying to give the community control over development. The alternative in today’s environment, with massively increased housing targets (1330 a year, every year, in Westmorland and Furness), is that we become subject to the aspirations of commercial house builders.

Consultation continues

Some residents of Howard Park have been in touch directly and we are meeting with them to better understand their concerns, and learn more about the specific challenges, so we can fully understand all the issues relating to the potential site. A reminder that we are really early in all of this, and still have many fundamental questions to answer, so please be patient with us! Questions from Monday have been added here – we’ll keep this updated as we go – and answer what we can.

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Thank you to everyone who attended, or sent apologies for not being able to make it on Thursday. We hope we managed to convey the scale of what we’ve done so far, and the importance of the next steps we need to take.

Many thanks to Chris Fawcett and Phil Houghton from Eden Housing for their guidance and support in getting us so far along this journey over the past few months, and also to Fran Richardson from Action with Communities in Cumbria for helping us refine our vision and values, Judith Derbyshire and Westmorland & Furness Council for their support, and to Greystoke Parish Council, not least Mike Bousfield who chaired the meeting last night on their behalf and who is a key member of the group.

Most importantly the success of this project will depend on our great community. We have a unique opportunity to try to build the houses we need as a community, in the way we want it to be done, rather than being dictated to by commercial builders. Let’s seize this opportunity, and plan for our future together.

Slide Deck

Our values and vision (see slide 6!) commit us to “earning the trust of the community through open, inclusive decision-making” and transparency. Here is the full slide deck and speaker notes from last night for you to read through. NB We have added 2 slides to summarise Henry’s part of the presentation after he spoke last night. You can also view the slides here.

Next Steps

The core group needs to constitute a formal Community Land Trust, and get funding and quotes for a Housing Needs Survey, so we know what we need to build.

We need you to sign up as members of the Trust once we’ve done that. This gives you the right to vote on community assets and key the decisions. And we need you to spread the word and prepare for the Housing Needs Survey.

Drop-in Sessions

Our drop-in sessions at the Pool Cafe start on Monday 3rd February. Pop in and ask us questions, sign up, share ideas and thoughts. We want to hear from you!

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