Planning for Mill Hill's future

From Richard Logue - one of the Liberal Democrat candidates for Mill Hill Ward

I wanted to set out my personal view on the Mill Hill Neighbourhood Forum and the NW7 Hub charity, both of which I play an active part in. This blog post does not represent either Mill Hill Neighbourhood Forum or the NW7 Hub, it is purely my personal opinion.

The Mill Hill Neighbourhood Forum is an voluntary organisation in Mill Hill that is tasked with the creation of Mill Hill's Neighbourhood Plan. This, once formally adopted, will provide the template for future development in Mill Hill.

The committee members of the Neighbourhood Forum come from a variety of backgrounds, both non-political and political. My fellow Mill Hill ward candidates Val Duschinsky from the Conservatives, Mike Barker from Labour and my fellow Liberal Democrat candidate Roger Tichborne are active members, however in the forum we all forget about politics and work together, very well. The chairman John Gillett is extremely hard working and provides his experience and considerable energy to keep us all focused on getting the Neighbourhood Plan together.

One key area that the Neighbourhood Forum is particularly interested in is Mill Hill Broadway. They are working hard with the traders to make the Broadway an attractive destination. To that end they have created the new Pocket Park or Town Square opposite Boots and Howard Brothers. Their objective with the Town Square is to make it the place to meet in Mill Hill. Last Saturday the Town Square hosted a food market to great success. There will be a further market on 4th and 5th May, I look forward to seeing as many of you as possible there!

The next 30 years will be critical to Mill Hill, the aim is to have a robust neighbourhood plan in place so that future development is managed properly and that we have good transport links from Mill Hill to not just Central London but also radial links to key destinations. The committee are all passionate about the future success of Mill Hill and with the dedicated team they have in place I know we will achieve that.

I am also particularly proud of what has been achieved at Mill Hill Library. The library is managed by the NW7 Hub charity of which I am acting Chairman. The NW7 Hub team were already planning a new community centre for Mill Hill on Daws Lane, on the site of the old Civil Defence building when the unwelcome news came that Barnet Council were proposing to reduce their library service. The NW7 Hub team have done Mill Hill a great service by running the library. The business hub has hosted a number of great events, such as last Saturday's very successful craft fair and children's parties.

When the NW7 Hub on Daws Lane is complete Mill Hill will have a fantastic community resource. What makes the NW7 Hub project particularly special is that, like the neighbourhood forum, it is great example of how a campaign that came from the grassroots can make a positive change. I am really proud of all of our trustees and our volunteers and the hard work they put into it. This is one of the great strengths of Mill Hill and what makes our community special.