About
Please scroll down to read more about the committee members and their bios.
The North Kingston Neighbourhood Forum was formally established and ratified by Kingston Council in August 2017. Our Neighbourhood Area covers the whole of Canbury and Tudor wards. All local residents and businesses are automatically members of the Forum and can register their interest by subscribing to the mailing list.
A committee has led the Forum, its main task is to collect the views of our community so as to produce a Neighbourhood Plan for North Kingston which conforms to National, London and Local priorities. This is a long term vision for the area, and if agreed by Referendum, it will become part of the local planning framework and used by Kingston Council to determine planning applications in Canbury and Tudor wards alongside the borough’s Local Plan.
This will be a plan written by the community, for the community and will allow us greater influence over development in our area by giving us a say on where building should take place, what it should look like and what infrastructure should be provided.
The draft London Plan will require Kingston to build 13640 new homes over the next 10 years, and North Kingston will be expected to play its part. We are neither pro or anti development, but we believe it will be more effective to engage with the council to ensure that the impact of new development is not only fully mitigated but that it is accompanied by a full range of amenities and infrastructure for the benefit of both current and future residents.
The Forum committee is non-political, independent and resident-led however, we highly value and welcome the support our local ward councillors provide. We are not linked to the council in any way, but wish to work with them. We have been awarded New Initiative funding from the council to help us produce the plan.
The Forum committee is made up entirely of volunteers – just regular residents like you and me, including community groups and businesses. A list of the current members is on our website as are the minutes of our meetings. We also have a number of work groups, led by committee members who are researching the following themes:
Business and Commerce
Heritage and Design
The Environment
Community Facilities and Services.
Design Codes for Development Sites and areas.
We are exceedingly fortunate that some of our volunteers have expertise in planning and design, but to ensure we successfully navigate through the quagmire of neighbourhood planning in London, we have been awarded funding from the Ministry of Housing, Community and Local Government to recruit the services of a professional neighbourhood planning consultantancy, Oneill Homer.
There are over 2000 neighbourhood planning groups in England, and over 100 in London. We are the first in Kingston, and would encourage other groups elsewhere in the borough to consider preparing their own neighbourhood plan.