Harlow and Gilston Garden Town awarded £295,000 by the Department for Levelling Up
News / Sun 26th Mar 2023 at 08:58am
HARLOW & Gilston Garden Town has been awarded £295,000 by the Dept for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities as part of their Proptech Innovation Fund and the Local Digital Fund.
It’s not the first time that HGGT’s ambition has been recognised through Government funding with last year’s Your Quality of Life project, which saw significant engagement with local residents comment on what they liked, disliked and valued about the local area.
This funding will be used by the HGGT Team and partners to explore ways to store, share, manage and display consultation data from across the Garden Town area between local authorities and with the communities they serve.
It will also help the Garden Town partnership understand what digital and data tools and skills are needed to ensure that HGGT can shape future proposals, policies and strategies.
Not only will this allow greater transparency and access to data for the public but generate more meaningful engagement across HGGT Partners and with communities themselves.
Another Garden Town aim is to clearly show the data and analytics from HGGT and council partner consultations so that the community can see what was said and how local authorities plan to use that feedback.
It will promote accountability, growing trust and access with HGGT looking to do this through the creation of an online data resource and dashboard.
This will also help HGGT and partners to not only plan and build the best places possible but build on the Your Quality of Life engagement project and other digital transformation projects across the partnership.
Commenting on behalf of Harlow & Gilston Garden, Naisha Polaine, said: “We have gathered and analysed data from residents on an unprecedented scale across Harlow and the local area over the last six months.
“Too often people say what’s the point of giving a view, nothing happens, but we want to show the community it does make a difference to what we do.
“Our first step is to make sure we have the right digital and data systems, skills and tools in place to do this and our Local Digital Fund award helps us to discover that and put it into action.
“We will then be looking at creating an accessible dashboard for the public and our Garden Town Partners through the PropTech Innovation fund.
“As a five council partnership, we’re committed to creating thriving and sustainable communities for this and future generations.”
Richard Adams
2023-03-26 09:29:19
What a complete waste of money. What will existing and future residents get out of this nothing as the powers that be ignore any comments or views put forward so far in my experience.
Alan Leverett
2023-03-26 09:48:04
Surley this should be paid by the cash rich developers in the form of section 106 agreements at the planning stage. Engagement your having a laugh at the residents of Harlow. Engagement means consultation, listening to comments and making provisions to offset the objections. All HGGT do is ignore completely or offset the objection with a statement of what they want you to hear.
Mark Lavender
2023-03-26 10:24:01
Again out of date graphics showing the town as it would have been if all this happened years ago. It reads like rings on a tree. Public Health England is the - sadly - much derided establishment which should have come to Harlow anytime after our MP promised it as one of his election pillars to bring much needed employment to the town, regardless of if it was for locals or people coming in on the train. Like PHE or the new hospital, all these plans are just that.
Kim Oconnor
2023-03-27 08:30:09
Councils were presented with a petition from ,Frends of Latton Island, and the green party presented you councils with a petition of over 6,000 signatures from Harlow alone, and nearly a 1,000 from the Aliance party, from Harlow alone. That's with out surrounding villages. Protest s meeting after meeting.. Theses unaffordable housing has no benifts to Harlow 5,000 waiting on homes here in Harlow. Theses are not VILLAGES, there unaffordable housing estates. Which is going to destroy our green spaces , and more importantly, destroying our river stort valley. BY BUILDING 2 ROADS A CROSS IT. Which you all ways, all ways fail to mention..in consultation, I was told we are not hear to talk about river... And we now see the beginning of the tree feiling in Harlow, which was not mentioned... I phoned our Harlow council to talk to a tree officer, , was told it all goes through council now.. If we carnt talk to a tree officer , then what hope has the public got of savings theses trees. We feel that , we are being utterly and completely ignored.. other people have tried in different ways, and the buck is passed from one place to another.. So no you don't want to hear us, or see us... But I do know, when all this destruction is done,, you may reap what you sow, we will flood.
4 Comments for Harlow and Gilston Garden Town awarded £295,000 by the Department for Levelling Up: