Well attended meeting of KT neighbourhood Forum welcomes the ‘Northern Triangle’

Minutes of Special General MeetingKentish Town Neighbourhood Forum (KTNF)

Kentish Town Community Centre NW5 2SP

Those attending

A formal vote was held involving all current members of KTNF present.

In favour: 26 votes

Against: 0 votes

Abstentions: 0 votes

It was therefore unanimously agreed that the North Kentish Town Association is included within the KTNF and the area covered by the KTNF included within the boundaries of the KTNF.

Seconder: Paul Seviour.

The meeting voted overwhelmingly in favour of the co-option of Mary Cane to the KTNF Committee with no votes against and one (1) abstention.

Mary Cane was duly co-opted to the KTNF Committee.

A quorum of 7 rather than 9 for KTNF Committee meetings (3.4)

An option to ask a Committee member to resign if they fail without an apology and good reason to attend 2 consecutive Committee meetings (3.9)

A revised definition of registered member of the KTNF (3.1)

An option for minor amendments to the Constitution to be affected through notification to and consultation with all registered members rather than by calling a Special General Meeting (6.1)

Clarity over the election of the Officers of the Committee (3.5)

A vote was taken to approve the amended Constitution. It was passed overwhelmingly with no (0) votes against and one (1) abstention.

A question was raised about the provisions of 3.12 which required Representative Local Organisations to be able to demonstrate that they are representative and have a mandate for the views of their members. The Committee are required to monitor this and advised that while it was an important issue it would be applied with a light touch to avoid creating any unnecessary burdens for the organisations.

member described the walkabouts as “incredibly enlightening” which was generally endorsed by the meeting.

A walkabout would need to be arranged to cover the area of the North Kentish Town Association. A volunteer from the area would be needed.

The possibility of running the walks on a regular basis was raised as was the idea of videoing the walks and placing the video on the new website. This would be considered subject to resources and other members of the KTNF taking on the role of organiser.

Biljana provided examples of Neighbourhood Forums and Community Organisations they had worked with to date, including a case study on Bristol Old Market. She explained that their principal role was to facilitate the process of drawing up a Neighbourhood Plan and to provide a range of specialist advice including urban planners, transport planners, environmental advisers and business experts.

Angela explained the varied methods of engagement that had been used in other areas including Croydon and Haringey to involve hard-to-reach groups.

The proposed offer of help from the Prince’s Foundation to the KTNF would take the possible form of:

An initial open public meeting to seek views and ideas for what people wished to see to improve Kentish Town and to include in a Neighbourhood Plan. It would also include breaking up into smaller groups to begin prioritising ideas. This would need the participation of a large number of local people, and we would be looking for at least 100 participants.

A second day would take the form of a workshop involving key stakeholders; Council officers, Councillors, business and landowner representatives and a group of KTNF members. This would look at all the feedback from the first day and any other feedback gathered through community engagement.

The third day would involve the Prince’s Trust facilitators collating all the material and then presenting it in the evening to a second large open public meeting.

This 3 day process would take place at an agreed date in July.

This proposal was put to the meeting to consider.

A vote was taken.

In favour: 32

Against 1

Abstentions 5

The proposal to take up the assistance of the Prince’s Trust was therefore carried overwhelmingly.

There was no Any Other Business.

The Chair updated everyone about our Forum application. On April 12 we delivered our official application to Camden for Designation of Kentish Town Neighbourhood Forum and for Designation of the Kentish Town Neighbourhood Area. The Area we applied was available to view at the meeting in 2 maps and included in anticipation the North Kentish Town Area. The procedure now is that Camden will consider our application, along with any other Neighbourhood Forums that have applied in Camden. After that the applications will be publicly available online over a 6 week period. Everyone will have a chance to comment on them. Camden will take these comments into consideration and ultimately will be the final arbiter on the boundaries.