• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Long Leys Community

A website for residents of the Long Leys area of Lincoln

  • Home
  • News
  • Local Information
    • Access To A Defibrillator In Long Leys
    • Subscribe to Long Leys Community Emails
    • Carholme Community Forum
    • Mobile Library Service Times
    • StopVeolia Campaign Website
  • LLRA information
    • Feedback to LLRA
    • Key Contacts / Problem Reporting
    • A Guide to the LLRA
    • LLRA Management Committee
    • Management Committee Minutes
      • LLRA 2024-2025
      • LLRA 2023-2024
      • LLRA 2022-2023
      • LLRA 2021-2022
      • LLRA 2020-2021
      • LLRA 2019-2020
      • LLRA 2018-2019 and 2017-2018
    • LLRA Constitution (2024)
    • LLRA Management Committee Elections
    • Stop Veolia Legal & Campaign Fund Status
    • LLRA Data Protection Policy
    • LLRA Health & Safety Policy
    • Submit An Idea
    • AGM’s
      • 2023 LLRA AGM and Community Meeting: Summary
      • 2022 LLRA AGM and Community Meeting
      • 2019 LLRA AGM and Community Meeting
      • 2018 LLRA AGM and Community Meeting
      • 2017 AGM
      • 2016 AGM
  • Neighbourhood Plan
    • Neighbourhood Plan News Articles
    • Key Documents
    • Neighbourhood Plan Supporting Evidence
      • Initial Focus Areas: Neighbourhood Plan
      • Long Leys Housing Needs Assessment
      • Historical Development of Long Leys
      • Habitat & Wildlife
    • Archive
      • NPAG & Minutes
      • Village Centre Project
  • Wildlife & West Common
    • West Common and Burton Ridge Nature
    • Lincoln Commons Advisory Panel
    • Bird-Survey
      • Bird-Survey: Overview and How To Use
      • Bird-Survey: Report Bird Sightings
      • Bird-Survey: Summary of Bird Sightings
      • Habitat Maps
      • Bird-Survey Login
  • About This Site
    • About This Site
    • Comments Policy

Life After Veolia 2 – Our Future Priorities

23rd March 2018 by Chris Taylor Leave a Comment

Life seems quiet since Veolia withdrew from the Public Inquiry, thereby abandoning their plans for Long Leys Road. This welcome peace has provided a chance for us to catch up on our sleep, our work, and indeed to take back control of our lives. It was a busy year!

But now there’s some tidying up to be done, and then some planning for the future. You’ll be seeing more about this in the weeks ahead, and elements will be discussed at the Long Leys Residents’ Association (LLRA) annual general meeting (AGM) on 22 May.

In summary, there are three key areas that need attention, discussed in more detail below:

  • the StopVeolia campaign should be set aside for the time being
  • any balance of funds raised to fight Veolia should be formally transferred to where it is subject to full legal oversight
  • we must concentrate on planning the future of our community.

StopVeolia’s campaigners to step aside

The informal group who ran the StopVeolia campaign can now step aside as that job is done – but don’t be concerned, the group can and will reconvene at a moment’s notice if it becomes necessary. The campaign has been able to act faster, and to act differently, than the LLRA or any other constitutional body could, but that informality is no longer required.

In any case, the LLRA committee comprises very largely members of the StopVeolia team; this may change at the May AGM, but not to a significant degree. The LLRA is the proper body to look after Long Leys’ interests, and we can be confident that they will call on the right people if new threats emerge at any time.

Future of the fighting fund

And so to the money. Your generosity raised some £12,500 to fight Veolia. We spent almost all of that, but the generosity of others – and the hard work of the LLRA secretary – means we have been able to recoup about half. We have also applied for the balance of our unrecovered costs to be repaid by Veolia, but we may or may not see this. The money was raised under the StopVeolia name, and should now be placed legally under the aegis of LLRA which has administered the fund, reporting to trustees, since the beginning. This transfer will be ratified at the LLRA AGM.

It has been agreed that – with the exception of £500 to be reserved for operating costs – the money (about £6,400 now, and possibly a further £5,000+ if we get costs from Veolia) will be held securely by LLRA in an interest bearing account until summer 2019 at least. That does not mean we will spend it next year – just that we will not use it for any purpose until at least that time, in case Veolia or any other alarm is triggered. And when LLRA discusses it next year, the decision may well be to continue to keep it safe and secure for a further period.

Creating a Neighbourhood Plan

LLRA’s constitutional aims include to pursue all reasonable and possible ways to improve the Long Leys environment, for the benefit of the community. Time for some future planning, then. It’s very timely as the process of forming local neighbourhood plans is now high on local authority agendas, and LLRA as a community residents’ association may be entitled to prepare its own Neighbourhood Plan; indeed the suggestion has been met with some enthusiasm by the City Council. If we can do what is necessary to make this happen, there may even be some grant aid we can apply for, to help us draw up such a plan in the proper and acceptable manner.

Our own professionally drawn up Neighbourhood Plan would cover a range of topics from planning, public transport, what community facilities we would like to see, our thoughts on the balance between residential / commercial / industrial development, and more. If adopted, it would then carry some weight with the City and the County, who will have to take note of our wishes when discussing development plans. We won’t win every debate, but at least the debates will happen.

So let’s spend some time this year looking at a Neighbourhood Plan. Then, maybe next year, if no further threats need our attention and our money, we could consider how some of the money could be spent, to help realise the Plan. We’ve been here before, when discussing how the ‘Section 106’ monies, held in trust by the City Council for the benefit of Long Leys, should be spent. That money is still available, and LLRA will ensure that this larger pre-existing sum is not diverted from this purpose.

A Neighbourhood Plan would provide focus to our ideas, our plans, and our spending. I for one look forward to being involved in its development.

Another busy year ahead, but one which holds much promise for a brighter future for Long Leys!

CHRIS TAYLOR

ct@clara.net

Filed Under: News

Reader Interactions

What Others Are Saying: Cancel reply

Please read Comments Policy before commenting.
Comments may be moderated, against our comments policy, prior to being published.

Note: Long Leys website moderators are keen to encourage engagement within comment pages. Please keep comments respectful and consider the feelings and self-esteem of all members of our community.
Please use your real name when leaving a comment, not a nickname, so that everyone in the Long Leys community can identify who is commenting. Also provide a valid email address. Your email address will not be published or used for purposes other than responding to your comment. Required fields are marked *.

Primary Sidebar

Welcome

Welcome to the Long Leys Community website. Its purpose is to help build wider community engagement in the Long Leys area of Lincoln and harness the enthusiasm and skills of all Long Leys residents to more actively shape our area; helping us together to build the local community we want over the coming years.

Upcoming Events

Saturday 31 May 10.15am – 11:45 am: West Common Nature Walk. Read further details.

Feedback

Long Leys Residents’ Association welcomes information and feedback from residents. To give feedback you can either email LLRA@long-leys.org or use the contact form.

Subscribe to the Long Leys Community Email List to get updates on activities in Long Leys.

Tweets by LongLeysLincoln

Latest posts

  • West Common Nature Walk – Saturday 31 May 10.15 am
  • Lincoln Grand Prix Sunday 11 May 2025 + Road Closures
  • Volunteers Needed: Vehicle Speed Reduction on Long Leys Road
  • Additional Bus Service: Retford to Lincoln via Long Leys
  • Thank You To Our Volunteers on the Long Leys Spring Tidy Up

Copyright Long Leys Community © 2025     

Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage {vendor_count} vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}