Hopefully most residents will have seen the launch announcement leaflet introducing the project to build a Shop, Community Centre & Allotment Growing Centre in Long Leys. This was delivered to your home on 28 February but is also available to view online at: long-leys.org/village along with the 28-page project proposal and other project documentation.
Next Steps
LLRA’s Village Centre project team are now in the process of applying for 2022/23 grant funding from Locality, the government agency responsible for supporting Neighbourhood Planning in the UK. Based on previous experience we would expect to receive the funding by early June. The grant funding will enable:
- The appointment of professional planning consultants who will provide much needed expertise on planning aspects as the project team (volunteers) progress the project.
- Production of communication material to assist with future face-to-face consultations within the Long Leys Community. This material will also help address some of the planning related queries people may have about any development. More news on the timing of the consultation will be available when the planning consultants are on board.
In the meantime, whilst waiting for the funding to be available the project team are:
- Visiting various community hubs / village halls in Lincolnshire to look at different approaches and business models (eg The Hub – Nettleham, Council owned facilities, Parish council operated facilities).
- Progressing reference site visits on the growing centre in collaboration with Lincolnshire Food Partnership (including the amazing people behind Willoughby Road Allotment Association in Boston). This includes exploring opportunities to link with Community Supported Agriculture and market gardening as well as foodbanks.
- Awaiting further information to be provided by our Local Planning Authority (LPA), City of Lincoln Council
Help Wanted: Suggest Your Favourite Village Hall or Community Hub
The project team have visited some great village halls and community hubs to look at different aspects of what they offer and how they manage their finances. Every visit has been helpful in helping the understanding of what may be best for Long Leys.
Where you can help:
- If you have a particular favourite “village hall” or “social hub” in Lincolnshire that you feel LLRA should explore in more detail (or maybe even directly copy!) then please let us know by emailing LLRA@long-leys.org with the hall’s details and why you think it would make a great addition to Long Leys.
- Likewise, if you know anyone providing activities (such as exercise classes, art & other classes or even barista coffee making) who may want to expand their activities to Long Leys then please email LLRA with a description of their services.
Whilst we can’t guarantee to follow through on all suggestions / contacts at this stage, it will help build our understanding of what is available.
Thank you.
I remain unclear as to where the demand for the “much needed” allotment growing centre has come from, is there any clarification on that point please?
If this is what the majority of the community/residents want, then good luck with it. I’d appreciate it however if you could clarify whether you are still going ahead or not with the now discredited and unpopular proposal to appropriate nearby allotment land to build all of this on. Thank you.
I would have thought the project needs to await planning permission before taking the steps described above. Have I missed something? Could you explain what an allotment growing centre is when you are stealing allotments to plop this on? Surely an allotment is a growing centre already!? Please explain becuase as an allotmenteer myself, I am getting very confused. One minute it’s a shop then community centre now mention of excercise classes, and other classes. Please could you elaborate and explain how all this isn’t going to affect our allotment site. Thank you 😊
There is large and growing opposition to this scheme within the local community and stakeholders, why then are LLRA seeking to acquire public funding (from the tax payer) to pursue this unpopular and discredited plan of theirs? Their are many reasons to oppose this, not least that it is totally unnecessary to build on the green spaces that make our local environment so special and rewarding for the residents of Long Leys, a suburb of our great City Lincoln.