Neighbourhood Forum agreement
Next meeting 24th June 6.00pm at Tabard community hall, Hankey Place SE1 4LR

“We are pleased to report that following Monday’s mediation Council officers have agreed to reverse their recommendation to the decision maker, Mark Williams, to refuse our application on behalf of OBVNF.

The mediation was attended by a representative from DCLG as well as the independent mediator. In this company and with the declared objective of both sides being to come to an agreement to permit Council recognition of OBVNF the process was very straight-forward: The Council set out their demands and – as we have in the past – we simply agreed to meet each and every one. The difference this time was that in a mediation each side is expected to put its cards on the table and to be bound by any agreement.

A copy of the mediation agreement is attached below. The key elements were focused on meeting the Council’s demands that OBVNF is genuinely open to all who wish to participate in the Neighbourhood planning process and that BVAG doesn’t have some kind of strangle-hold on the group. Of course, we say this has never been the case and meetings have always been open and welcoming to all. But as any reasonable demands in satisfaction of such a requirement are so easy to accommodate that is of course exactly what we did.

One key issue for the council officers was that our meetings are held at a ‘neutral venue’ so as not to deter those who are uncomfortable in Globe House. Although we are aware of no such category of would-be participants, to respect this demand we will be holding a meeting this Wednesday at Tabard community hall, Hankey Place SE1 4LR. The meeting will need to be half an hour earlier than usual because it has to be sandwiched between a martial arts class ending at 6.00pm and a Borough & Bankside Forum meeting that starts at 7.00pm. However, as the purpose of the meeting is to ratify the mediation agreement, following a briefing on its implications, and elect a new Chairman (another of the Council demands we were quite ready to accommodate) an hour should be enough. If it is not we will simply need to adjourn to another venue for whatever business remains.

Amy has put herself forward as a candidate to chair future meetings. If anyone else wishes to stand against her for election to the role please let us know as soon as possible so that we can take steps to publicise the election.

Apologies for the late (and short) notice but before it was possible to call a meeting we had to find and book a new venue.”