Town Plan Mission Statement 

“Cotgrave, a cohesive community, increasingly vibrant, based on mutual understanding 
and respect, where people feel valued and safe."

 Town Plan Manager

 A Town Plan Manager funded by the Coalfields Regeneration Trust (CRT) for up to two
years has now been appointed to oversee the implementation of the Plan. Julian Stocks
joined the Town Council on the 13^th March 2005 after spending the last 7 years working
for a multi-agency Partnership tackling anti-social behaviour and youth disaffection in
former coalming communities in the North of the County.

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If you have any comments on the Town Plan, or you have any ideas for Projects,
you need any help in applying for funding for a Project or you would simply like to
volunteer for any of the activities in the Plan (see ECO Teams later in this section)
then Julian would be delighted to hear from you! He is based at Cotgrave Futures
and can be contacted on 0115 989 1708, mobile 0796 1911165 or by email at
townplanmanager@copperstream.co.uk

 If you want to become more directly involved in the implementation of the Town Plan, you
might want to think about; 

attending the Cotgrave Community Forum where the town plan is discussed regularly. The
Forum meeting dates are June 21^st 2006, September 13^th 2006, November 22nd 2006
and March 21st 2007 in the Enterprise Centre.

• attending a Town Plan Committee meeting – at which members of the public are
  welcome and can participate in at the Chairman`s discretion. The Committee
  meets at Cotgrave Futures and meetings start at  9:30am. Dates of future meetings
  are June 9^th 2006, Sept 8^th 2006, November 3rd 2006, January 12th 2007, February
  23rd 2007 and April 27th 2007.

My Cotgrave

 Around 40 local residents including 15 Young People came together on Saturday
18^th March 2006 to take photographs of the best (and sometimes the worst!) of what
Cotgrave has to offer. Under the banner of “My Cotgrave”, 24 teams took out disposable
cameras for the day and took over 500 photographs! These were subsequently developed
and exhibited at the Town Plan Launch on the 5^th April 2006 (see details) below. The
best of the photographs, voted by Cotgrave Residents attending the Launch Event,
will be included in the published version of the Town Plan which will be available in June. 

Thanks go to Rushcliffe Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership for funding
the event and to; Cotgrave Town Council, Rushcliffe CVS, Rushcliffe Anti-Social
Behaviour Co-Ordinator, Nottinghamshire County Council Community
Development Team and Nottinghamshire Rural Community Council for their
sterling work in ensuring that the day was such a great success.

 Town Plan Launch Event 

Wednesday 5^th April saw the launch of the latest version of the Town Plan. Local Residents
including at least 12 young people attended an exhibition of the photographs taken during the
“My Cotgrave” event. They also took the opportunity to comment on the initiatives and activities
set out in the Plan (displayed on the walls) by sticking coloured notes with their comments on
against relevant bits of the Plan. Comments ranged from ‘All in all, the plan is excellent – if I
stuck a note next to each welcome bit, the walls would be orange’ to ‘How do we tackle culture
of fear? Wider problem than just Cotgrave, but one that needs tackling all the same.’ Look out
for the final published version of the plan which will be ready before the end of June. 

Once more thanks go to Cotgrave Town Council, Rushcliffe CVS, Rushcliffe Anti-Social
Behaviour Co-Ordinator, Nottinghamshire County Council Community Development Team and
Nottinghamshire Rural Community Council for their help in staging and running the event.

 Young Potential

Young Potential provides challenging personal development programmes in their
local community for up to 20 young people aged between 13 and 19. A number of
Cotgrave Young People have signed up for the current programme. It has brought
together a partnership within the community, recruited and trained 9 volunteers as
Mentors and will work for up to 1 year with the young people. Each course includes
an intensive residential phase designed to challenge the young people to address
their choices and actions, followed by community based follow up sessions that
enhance the ability of the young people to effect changes in their lives. The Cotgrave
Programme residential event ran at a location near Ashbourne over the week
commencing 10^th April 2006 and concluded in a “homecoming event” at Cotgrave
Welfare on Friday 14^th April 2006.

Every young person on the Cotgrave programme has the benefit of support from a trained
volunteer Coach/Mentor, either on a one-to-one basis or a one-to-two dependent on the
numbers of volunteers and the needs of the young person. The role of the Coach/Mentor is
to provide a stable and consistent relationship with the young person throughout the
programme. This includes supporting them to attend programme sessions and coaching
on achieving personal goals and action steps. Coach/Mentors have at least one face-to-face
meeting plus one telephone call with their allocated young person/s each week. A
residential event for the Volunteer Coach/Mentors was also held over the weekend of the
25^th and 26^th March 2006.

If you want to know more about the work of Young Potential, or if you want to volunteer
as a Coach/Mentor, visit the Young Potential website at www.youngpotential.org.uk
or call Cath Evans on 07830 253830. 

 ECO Teams 

Global Action Plan, is an environmental charity planning to lead an innovative project in
Cotgrave.  The project, called “EcoTeams”, encourages and supports the first steps
necessary for individuals, households or groups to lower their ‘ecofootprint’ and lead
more sustainable lives.

 Serious environmental issues like climate change, pollution and what to do with rubbish
can seem daunting issues for individuals to tackle.  However, the EcoTeams project
hows how individuals can make measurable differences and is built upon a few simple
principles:

·         No one can do everything, but we can all can do something;

·         The work is shared by a group so that members can support and encourage
one another and share experiences and ideas;

·         It's a step-by-step process that helps you to change your lifestyle by small
adjustments that become good habits;

·         By measuring resource use, improvements can be monitored during the
course of the programme.

 An EcoTeam is formed when a group of around 6 households joins together to meet
once a month (for four months) with a Global Action Plan EcoTeam Coach. 
At each meeting topics are discussed with practical ways to reduce a household’s
environmental impact. Also during the four months, each household undertakes to
monitor their consumption of energy and output of rubbish and recycling.  After the
scheme, EcoTeamers feel more confident in undertaking the small, practical steps
that reduce our environmental impact and as a bonus also tend to have reduced
domestic bills!  The project is delivered free – including all coaching and materials!  

An initial meeting will be set up where the project is explained in more detail and
households can ask  questions before deciding to join the project.  If you want to
do your bit for the environment, then volunteer your household for the EcoTeams
initiative by contacting Adrian Williams, tel: (0115) 9178080, mobile 07717 870336 or
email adrian.williams@globalactionplan.org.uk. You can also visit the Global Action
Plan website at www.globalactionplan.org.uk