FPSGNF Meeting 2023-03-23 Minutes

Present

Linda Royles (Chair), Hugh White (Vice- Chair), Elizabeth Lowe, Susie Barson, Adam Hardy, Lawrence Singha (Membership Secretary), Dorothy Newton, Susan Lowenthal, Angela Koch, James Holmes, Anne Lavery, Mark Douglass, Paul Kavanagh, Clare Potter (Ward Councillor L. B. Hackney), Geraldine Timlin, Anna Solberg, Rona Topaz, Paul Simpson, Helen Cordell, Colin Bannon. Apologies Edward Farleigh

Election of Forum Officers and Steering Group members

All officers and Steering Group members were re-elected, and Colin Bannon, an urban regeneration professional was co-opted to the Steering Group.. There now remains a single vacancy for an additional Steering Group member from L.B. Haringey.

Constitution

The proposed amendments to the constitution which had been circulated to all members were put to the meeting. These include:

• The capacity to allow Forum officers to renew the continuity and existence of the Forum for the purposes of preparing a neighbourhood plan.
• A clause had been added to allow student members who were engaged for at least 8 hours a week at an accredited organisation;
• A clause to allow an associate membership for someone who has moved out of the area, but not far and who still has an interest in the work of the Forum and wishes to keep in touch. This person would not have voting rights.
• The term of service of the Forum officers has been increased from 18 months to 3 years
• All officers can also be members of the Steering Group but will not have voting rights (or is the change that they can now have voting rights?)
• The Chair and Vice Chair can represent the Forum externally
• The new figure of 30 Forum Members to make a meeting quorate. A member suggested that the proposal for 30 members should be reduced to 20 members. This should be achievable.

The changes were then put to the vote. The majority of those present voted in favour of all the changes, with 4 abstentions.

The Vice Chair Hugh White said that some late amendments had been received after the proposals had been circulated. These were largely typographical. A copy of the Constitution with the accepted changes and late received typographical changes would be circulated to all members for final comment.

Design Codes Project

Hugh White, then introduced the Pathfinders/Design Codes project. He explained that we had had some funding from Locality for Angela Koch and her team from Imagine Places to work on the Design Codes for the Finsbury Park ‘station quarter’ area and the site allocations therein.

The station quarter is loosely speaking the area around the station on all sides but it does not currently align with any political ward or local authority designated boundaries such as TownCentre or District Centre; it is simply a working definition for the Finsbury Park Design Codes area for the Finsbury Park and Stroud Green neighbourhood forum.

Angela explained that once the Steering Group had commented on her draft document and she has produced a final version (around 6 weeks), that this would be publicised. This would include an in-person workshop for stakeholders, residents, business owners etc, and an online survey. The final deadline for the document is the 31 st May 2023.

The Design Codes for the station quarter area would then become part of the neighbourhood plan, and as such would be part of the policy for the area in relation to each of the local authority Local Plans. If a landowner comes forward with a proposal for development, the councils will have to take in to account the Design Codes when considering the planning application.

The Design Codes do not just refer to buildings but green infrastructure, pavements, through-routes etc. Angela and her team are working overtime on this piece of work, pro bono, and for this she was thanked by the Vice Chair on behalf of the Forum.

Angela then gave a Powerpoint presentation on her work. She focused on the site allocations in the Station Quarter area, including Rowan’s; the triangle site adjacent to the north next to the railway line; the Morris Place site and the Seven Sisters Road group of terraced houses on the north side which includes Muslim Welfare House. She answered a few questions, such as on disabled access to the park, but the longer, more inclusive consultation will be carried out over the summer, once the final draft is complete. Another walkabout with Angela may be scheduled in too, as part of the consultation process, as well as a Design Codes seminar with stakeholders, landowners, Tfl and Network Rail in May.

My Place

Project leaders Zimmie Sutcliffe and Rico Prince summarised the work that their ‘young pioneers’ had carried out in gathering views of local people in Finsbury Park area. Their findings are a valuable addition to the evidence we will use to draft our neighbourhood plan. My Place have secured funding for another 6 months and will present their documentary film to the London Festival of Place, as well as being part of a panel at that event. They will be producing the accompanying report on the ‘theory of change’ in July. A new project is starting up based at Woodberry Down in partnership with Notting Hill Genesis and Berkeley Homes, who are providing the funding. This is still in the planning stage. Zimmie reported that some of the ‘young pioneers’ would like to continue to be involved, and have influence, in the Finsbury Park area, so the Steering Group will think about how best this can be accomplished.

Francesco Mollino reported that meetings with the councils had been held and feedback had been good. Looking ahead, another part of the work of the Neighbourhood Forum will be to identify projects to benefit from the allocation of CIL and other funding.

Date of next meeting

The next Forum date is Thursday 20th July at the FPT office, 7pm – 9pm.