The Board of Holbeck Neighbourhood Forum held its first meeting at the end of April. This followed elections to the Board that were held at our first Annual General Meeting in March. The Holbeck Neighbourhood Forum will be developing the Holbeck Neighbourhood Plan, which will be a document guiding development in Holbeck and put together by the people of Holbeck. At the AGM, there were lots of people representing Holbeck seeking to be elected to the Board, this included residents, businesses, housing organisations, volunteering and community groups. A vote was held and 7 residents and 5 organisations were voted on to take forward the plan. The March meeting of the Holbeck Neighbourhood Forum also heard the very welcome news that the Forum had been officially designated by Leeds City Council as the designated organisation to put together the Holbeck Neighbourhood Plan.

The first meeting of the Board had a great turn out with 10 out of the 12 elected Board members attending. There was a lot of formal stuff to get through such as agreeing our Officers; these are Chair: Dennis Kitchen; Treasurer: Anne Hopper; Secretary: Lucy Potter. We were then given a full breakdown of the steps to get the Neighbourhood Plan in place by Mike Dando from  Planning Aid England.

Due to the various formalities it has taken a while for the Board to come into fruition, but that's not to say a lot hasn't been done already. The Content of Plan task group has been developing the Plan based on residents’ comments and the Community Projects task group has run various events for local residents, and the Publicity group has promoted the Forum and the Plan with newsletters and a website. Some of the people on the task groups are also on the Board and we are all excited about the improvements that are appearing already in Holbeck. Now the Board is formalised we look forward to putting the Plan in place and seeking more views from the public at the Holbeck Gala which is being held on Saturday 19th July. We look forward to seeing you at Holbeck Gala.

Lucy Potter