Help protect and promote Handbridge

Local volunteers are drafting a Handbridge Neighbourhood Plan and they want people that live, work and volunteer in the area to get involved.

A Handbridge neighbourhood plan is being developed that could increase protection for green space and heritage and ensure greater consistency in planning design for new developments.

In the absence of a Parish Council a Handbridge Neighbourhood Forum is being set up to draft the plan in consultation with people that live, work and volunteer in the areas bordered by the River Dee on one side and the Wrexham Road on the other.

The proposed plan area and an interim Handbridge Neighbourhood Forum committee was the outcome of a series of public meetings from January 2019 to January 2020.

Dr Conor O’Gorman, interim chair of the Handbridge Neighbourhood Forum, said “Handbridge has many positives, including a significant amount of green space and heritage relative to housing, a diversity of educational facilities, shops, pubs and other businesses, churches, community groups and community projects.

A Handbridge Neighbourhood Plan could help promote and improve the social, economic and environmental well-being of the area. This initiative is not to block planning applications but rather to support sustainable development proposals that could give long term benefits to local residents and businesses whilst retaining green spaces and the character and heritage of the area.

This is an important time for people to get involved in local planning as a reform of national planning law is currently taking place."

A final decision on the Handbridge Neighbourhood Plan will be made in a referendum that will be open to residents eligible to vote to participate in.

Membership of the Forum is open to individuals aged 16 or over who live, work, study or volunteer in the Area; and individuals who are elected members of Cheshire West & Chester Council, any of whose area falls within the Area.

To get involved email handbridgeforum@gmail.com and/or join the newly created Handbridge Neighbourhood Forum Facebook Group at www.facebook.com/groups/handbridgeneighbourhoodforum/