Introduction to Community Rights workshop

Residents and community and neighbourhood group representatives are being encouraged to attend a workshop called ‘You’ve got the Power’, an Introduction to Community Rights’ on Wednesday 4th June at 10am -1pm, in the Council Chambers, Civic Office, Grays, Essex.

The Community Rights are a set of powers that give local people a greater say over how the community develops. They include: Community Right to Bid, Community Right to Challenge, Community Right to Build and Neighbourhood Planning. They can help communities to save local shops, pubs, libraries, parks and football grounds. You can decide what is built and how the area should develop. Groups of people have the chance to deliver local services and develop them into community enterprises.

The workshop has been organised to help people find out how Community Rights work, where they’ve been successful and how you could use them to fund a project.

Jacqui Payne, Programme Manager for ngage said “The new Rights contained within the Localism Act came into effect in 2012, devolving power from government to communities, local authorities and individuals. We have been overwhelmed by the response we have had so far for the workshop, but there are still places left so we would encourage anyone interested to book their place as soon as possible”.

There are still spaces available for a number of courses in ACE training programme (April to July). Forthcoming courses include computers courses such as Computers for absolute beginners, Desktop Publishing, Spreadsheets, Power point and Word processing.

There is also Basic emergency life support training, Introduction to NLP and CBT as well as many more. Courses such as Introduction to Theatre studies and photography for beginners are new to the programme and we would encourage anyone to book early to avoid disappointment.

To book your place on the Introduction to Community Rights, call 01375 652312 or visit: http://youve-got-the-power.eventbrite.co.uk.

To view the full ACE programme, visit: www.thurrockace.org.uk or the ngage website at www.ngagethurrock.org.uk where you can sign up to receive future ACE programmes direct.

Community Right to Bid
‘I want to save my local pub, library, football ground’
You can use the Community Right to Bid to ‘pause’ the sale of a building or land you care about, giving your community time to develop a bid to buy it. £17m in grants are available for the community ownership and management of assets.

Community Right to Challenge
‘I can do this better – I want to deliver services and set up a social enterprise’
Are you looking to run a local service?
The Right to Challenge gives local groups the opportunity to express their interest in taking over a local service where they think they can do it differently and better. £10m of grants are available to help groups get ready to run public services

Community Right to Build
‘I want to build affordable housing and other community facilities’
The Right to Build gives communities the power to build new shops, housing or community facilities without going through the normal planning process. £17.4m of financial support is available.

Neighbourhood Planning
‘I have a vision for my community – I need a neighbourhood plan’
Neighbourhood planning powers give people the chance to decide how their local area should develop and what should be built. You have the chance to choose where you want new homes, shops and offices to be built. £7.5m of grants and direct support is available to assist groups.

Book your place at: http://youve-got-the-power.eventbrite.co.uk or call 01375 652312. (Early booking is recommended).

For more information about the Community Rights, visit: www.mycommunityrights.org.uk