Resident-led Neighbourhood Forums Take Hold in Haringey - What does it mean for Harringay?

A neighbourhood forum for Crouch End, the first in Haringey, was approved by the Council last December. Plans for forums in Highgate and Stroud Green are also in the offing. To the south Stamford Hill have been trying to get Hackney Council to approve one and following the Finsbury Park regeneration conference last year, a steering group has been formed to discuss founding a Finsbury Park Neighbourhood Forum.

So what might all this mean for Harringay? Does it mean we should be looking at this too?

First a quick brush-up on what a neighbourhood forum is. 

Created by the 2011 Localism Act, designated neighbourhood forums are organisations or groups empowered to lead the neighbourhood planning process in a neighbourhood area where there is no town or parish council (ie. including parts all of London).

Neighbourhood planning enables communities to shape development in their areas through the production of Neighbourhood Development Plans, Neighbourhood Development Orders and Community Right to Build Orders.

Neighbourhood Development Plans become part of the Local Plan and the policies contained within them are then used in the determination of planning applications. Neighbourhood Development Orders and Community Right to Build Orders allow communities to grant planning permission either in full or in outline for the types of development they want to see in their areas.

The policies produced cannot block development that is already part of the Local Plan. What they can do is shape where that development will go and what it will look like.

The process starts with defining boundaries. Everything then has to be approved by the Council. I've heard that to our south those behind the nascent Stroud Green forum are likely to include Finsbury Park within their borders. What might this and any other influence these groups wield mean for Harringay if we don't have a champion?

Is it time for Harringay to think about a Harringay Neighbourhood Forum? (This question was also raised on the site four years back) 

Here's a map drawn up current and possible forum boundaries drawn up by by Stroud Green resident and HoL member Arkady.