NESTA Cambs Rural Challenge

The Neighbourhood Challenge is a new programme from NESTA (National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts), working with the Big Lottery Fund, to support community-led innovation.

They are funding Cambridgeshire ACRE to develop a new approach to Parish (Neighbourhood) Planning for rural areas so that Parish Councils are more empowered to lead their communities in taking on the responsibilities outlined in the Localism Bill.

Working with four different Parishes we will try out new innovative approaches to neighbourhood planning using interactive and visual methods. We are particularly keen to involve younger people who are often inspired to get involved through multi-media approaches. We are therefore working in partnership with Young Lives (www.young-lives.org.uk) to deliver this project, as they have considerable experience in this area.

We will use new community development techniques in order to develop a Parish (Neighbourhood) Plan for each community. These will include One Day Events, action days, an incentive competition and service challenge days.

We are working closely with Cambridgeshire County Council who are keen to start to devolve powers to local levels and work alongside communities and Parish Councils to co-produce local services.

To find out the latest on the project, why not read the project team’s blog: http://cambschallenge.wordpress.com