By Ian Bracey | February 5, 2019
Waterbeach CLT is now Incorporated!
It’s been a productive few months at Waterbeach CLT, and with the new year started we have some exciting news to share. In late January we received confirmation that the CLT has been formally registered and incorporated as a Community Benefit Society with charitable aims. This will allow us to act for the community in perpetuity. This is a big step for the CLT as we are now a formal body, so have a governing set of rules, and when dealing with the Council, developers or potential partners they can see we have community support and are serious about our aims.
Now that we are incorporated, those of you who have paid your £1 are now officially members. We shall be organising our AGM in the next few months, so we look forward to meeting you all then. Anyone else who wants to sign up as a member can do so at www.waterbeachclt.co.uk/signup.
We continue to look for options for our first project and have a few ideas. We have had productive conversations with developers and local land owners. We were invited by Urban&Civic to visit their site at Alconbury and see what they are working on. We were very interested to see what they have been doing through their new Civic Living brand, and were quite impressed by the quality, space and innovative ideas they are looking at. We are keen to hear from anyone with ideas or land for potential projects, no matter how large or small.
You may be aware of the forthcoming Supplementary Planning Document (SPD) for the Waterbeach New Town. This document is important as it will define how the new development will be carried out.
We had a recent success in getting the CLT recognised in the SPD. The Council have seen the importance of the role the CLT could play and we are excited that they have added a specific section for CLT and that “The Council is supportive, in principle…to working with a CLT to support the provision of the New Town”. We consider this to be an important show of support from SCDC, for which we thank them, and a win for the CLT.
Self and custom build is one of the areas which has been of interest to the CLT and we continue to meet with a number of different groups to pursue this option. We are lucky that South Cambs is a Vanguard authority for Self and Custom Build and hope this will offer the option for us to look at a pilot project. Watch this space.
Tell us if you need a home!
Most importantly we continue to gather Expressions of Interest for those in need of a home. If this is you, or you know someone who has had to move away, then please fill in the form at www.waterbeachclt.co.uk/looking-for-a-home. The more people who tell us, the better evidence we have for the Council of real need.