Please save the date for our second AGM.  We will hear a summary of the work we have accomplished during the first year and objectives for the year ahead.  We also have invited guests from the Highgate Neighbourhood Forum, who have just published their Plan, to share with us their experience and advice.

The Mayor of London is offering up to £20,000 to communities for projects to improve their high streets. The Hampstead Neighbourhood Forum will bid for this money for SEG. A winning bid will promote a vibrant, attractive high street, nurture business and enhance civic life. Please give us your view on how to bid.

We have already consulted traders and local groups, who have suggested some ideas. The deadline for responses is 25 January. (This initiative has now expired).

At the Forum's meetings, residents have often suggested Play Streets on which children can play safely. For years, some streets have been designated as Play Streets, but this has not meant much. Now, Camden has a new initiative. We asked them to explain what it involves. 

The Forum held a community conversation on 20 November 2014, with about 60 people meeting at Hampstead Community Centre. We shared the results of our consultation on our Vision document, and then hosted discussions on the aims and objectives in the document. Here's our report on what was said. 

More than 400 people sent in responses to the Forum's Vision document, which was distributed to all households in our area. The results show a strongly positive response to the objectives that were set out in the document. Here we present the detailed results.

The Forum presented the results of its "Vision" consultation on Thursday 20th November at the Hampstead Community Centre. Thank you to all the people who came and offered their views. These will help us to take the next steps in developing planning policies that will support our aims and objectives. The presentation on responses to the Vision document will appear here soon. 

The votes are in on our Vision document. We sent the document to every home in the Forum's area, and about 400 people sent in responses. We will present the findings at a 'Community Update' event at 6.45pm on 20 November 2014, at the Hampstead Community Centre, 78 Hampstead High Street.

Do come!

To give a flavour, there was very strong support for the objectives expressed in the document, though some people had reservations on particular issues. Many residents took the opportunity to express their views on a number of points. 

Camden Council has given its formal approval to Hampstead Neighbourhood Forum. This important step followed a period of public consultation that the Council conducted in summer 2014. The outcome was that Camden 'designated' the Forum, clearing the way for us to create a Neighbourhood Plan for our area.

For a forum to be designated, the Council must approve the boundaries of its area, and its constitution. It must be satisfied that the forum has consulted widely with residents in its area and is making strong efforts to understand local concerns. Now that Camden has given its approval, the boundaries of our area are fixed. 

Camden Council has carried out a public consultation  on whether it should designate us as Neighbourhood Forum. This is a necessary step that all such forums must go through. We submitted our application, our proposed boundaries and our constitution. The consultation period ran from 12 June to 25 July 2014, and has now ended.

The Forum met hundreds of local residents at the South End Green Festival on 29 June 2014 and at the Hampstead Summer Festival's Big Fair on 6 July. Our volunteers gathered many opinions on local issues, and on the kind of neighbourhood that local people would like to see in the future. Janine Griffis, Forum chair, was quoted in the Ham & High as saying: “It was incredibly busy and everyone thought it was the best Big Fair ever. The organisers did a fantastic job.” Thanks to these and other engagements, the Forum now has more than 600 members, and the list is growing. Do join us and help to build a vision of the future.