Find out how we can support your community on a wide range of issues....
Parish Councillor network meetings
Wednesday 13th March 2024 10.30am Hunsbury Hill Centre
Rural Housing- Local homes for local people
Come along to our next Parish Council Network meeting and find out about the new Rural Housing Enabler programme that is being delivered by the ACRE members, including NACRE, on behalf of Defra. The aim of the programme is to work with local communities to help boost the supply of new, affordable homes across England. So if you would like to know more, then join us at The Hunsbury Hill Centre for an interesting session (cake included!) To book your place click here: Parish Councillor Network Event
Network Meeting Tuesday the 28th of February
As we publish the results of the Northamptonshire village survey, Northamptonshire ACRE is evaluating the direction the charity needs to take to best support Northamptonshire's rural communities.
We invite you to join us for a workshop-style parish council event to share the priorities of your community. As a group we will work together to consider how the needs of communities might be met, and share ideas.
Temporarily departing from our usual format, this will be an excellent opportunity to network and share ideas, as well as help shape the support Northamptonshire ACRE offers your community in the future.
Support us to support you!
We will also be sharing the results of the village survey.
The meeting is face-to-face on Tuesday the 28th of February from 1.30 to 3.30pm and is free for all Parish Councils who are members of Northamptonshire ACRE. There is a small charge for non-members, please contact Northamptonshire Acre for more information.
Click the link below to book your place:
Network Meeting Monday 28th November 2022
The theme of this network meeting was how Parish Councillors could support their community during the cost-of-living crisis. The slides can be downloaded here and the recording of the meeting is available here. You will need the passcode: &nNW3t6% to access the recording.
One area that was looked at was the Warm Spaces that are being set up across the county. If you are in West Northants and are a community or voluntary sector organisation, you can apply for the West Northants Warm Welcoming Spaces grant that is avaiable, which is between £500 and £1500. The guidance is avaiable here.
- The West Northants Cost of Living support page is accessible here and this includes where you can find warm spaces in West Northants. It also allows you to register a space as a Welcoming Warm Space:
- The North Northants Cost of Living support page is accessible here and also has a list of warm spaces in the North.
As you know, Integrated Care Northamptonshire came into being on 1st July 2022. This is the new statutory integrated care system and is a legal requirement for the whole country, not just Northamptonshire. The two Unitary Authorities have slightly different approaches to the implementation of ICN and this is shown in these ICN North and West place development slides.
As you will see, there are a number of Local Area Partnerships being established in the North and West. The LAPs will be responsible for helping to shape the wider determinants of the health and inequality agenda, so it is vital that our communities are represented at the LAP level. We would urge all Parish and Town councils to be involved in their appropriate LAP and to contact either the North or West Authority for more details of how to be involved if you have not done so already.
Network Meeting Wednesday 20th July 2022
This was a round up of projects and current inititatives across the county. The slides can be accessed here.
The Good Neighbour Scheme slides from Jo Browning and Claire Yow, Good Neighbour fieldworkers, can be downloaded here.
Network Meeting Wednesday 30th March 2022
Our latest Councillor network meeting was a hybrid event - most attendees joined us by Zoom but some hardy folk also braved the rather wet weather to be in person at the meeting. Thank you to everyone who joined us. The theme for this meeting was 'how to green your community.'
The meeting was recorded and can be accessed here: https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/KR6wNr1Mlfp96l6k1aeuvPcg_h77NSU7-97m32ag_AWHXuPNR0KdGubgVGC_TyJD.51cXzbJO-BidYGh_ and the passcode is cr$cw72S. The chat is also availble here but please ignore the first few minutes
as we had problems with our microphone on the laptop, due to it being a hybrid meeting.
If you would like to find out more about the work that Climate Action West Northants is doing, please contact Jane Wood on [email protected].
Slides from
the meeting can be downloaded here. Alice Whitehead from Save our Street Trees gave an informative presentation about the work she has done to help save and increase the trees in Northampton. The presentation is available here and if you would like to speak to Alice she can be contacted on [email protected]
We welcome suggestions and ideas for topics or speakers at future networking events. If you have any suggestions, please email [email protected].
Don't forget to look out for more details about our Grow Green Together conference on Monday 12th September from 10am to 4pm. If you have any examples of local green initiatives you would like to share with others, please let us know and you could have a story board stand at the event or even run a workshop to enthuse other groups about the great work you have been doing.Email [email protected] if you would like more details or to be part of the conference day.
Other useful websites:
- Right trees for a changing climate/ right trees in the right place: http://www.righttrees4cc.org.uk/
- Finding out about the soil type in your area: http://www.landis.org.uk/soilscapes/
- Capital Asset Value for Amenity Trees: an article valuing trees as an amenity asset https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03071375.2018.1454077
- The Green Heat energy fund has just been released: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/green-heat-network-fund-ghnf
- Local authorities run literacy session about Carbon Literacy project: https://eu.patagonia.com/gb/en/actionworks/grantees/the-carbon-literacy-project/
- Speakcarbon.earth provides bespoke Carbon Literacy training and has some good resources: https://www.speakcarbon.earth/pages/local-authority-services
- Climate Change Environment & Growth Committee in North Northants: https://northnorthants.moderngov.co.uk/mgCommitteeDetails.aspx?ID=154
Network meeting Wednesday 10th November 2021
The last Parish Council Network Event took place on Wednesday 10 November 2021 at the Hunsbury Hill Centre. This was a hybrid meeting as it was also broadcast via Zoom. Members from 30 parishes attended.
The theme was 'Supporting Community Events'. Jo Maddams, Emergency Planning Officer at North Northants Council shared with us what all parishes need to consider when planning a large community event. Those present shared their plans for the Queen's Platinum Jubiliee Celebrations (2 & 3 June 2022). For a copy of Jo's presentation, please email [email protected]
We also invited Amie Freeman, David Reed from Northants Police Cyber and Fraud Protect to share information on how to keep your data secure. A copy of their presentaion can be found here. Their colleague Neil MacKenzie delivered a presentation in relation to fraud safety. If you would like Amie and David to deliver a presentation on cyber and fraud protect for your parish council meeting either in person or on zoom, please email: [email protected][email protected]
Elaine spoke about the Queen's Green Canopy project. Parish Councils can sign up via the website The Queen’s Green Canopy (queensgreencanopy.org). NACRE have signed up for the scheme and will be planting trees in their community orchard. For information on the Queen's Jubilee beacons see the website The Queen's Platinum Jubilee Beacons 2022 (queensjubileebeacons.com)
Please contact us if you have any questions about what was covered at the meeting. We are always happy to support you with your community based projects.
Previous network events:
'Increasing the biodiversity of your community' and was a rerun of a previous meeting and continued the 'Resilient Communities' theme: how rural residents can prepare to lessen the impact of any crisis that might arise so that the health, wellbeing and livelihoods of people in the area are increased.
Richard Hollingum, Trustee of Northamptonshire ACRE, discussed the exciting project taking place at the Hunsbury Hill Farm, which we hope will become a beacon of best practice for biodiversity and green projects for our members.
The audio from the meeting is available here. You will need the following passcode to access the recording Y03ZacL*
Introductory Slides
Jennifer Hedges, Rural Officer, Presentation Slides
Richard Hollingum, Presentation Slides
Richard Hollingum, Commentary to go with Presentation Slides
Harry Mellor, SNAC Presentation Slides
If you would like further information, please contact Jennifer Hedges, Rural Officer email: [email protected]
Thursday 16th July at 10:30am via Zoom. The theme for the session was 'Being a resilient community'. We discussed the role of the Parish Council in an (national) emergency. Joanne Maddams, Emergency Planning Officer for Northamptonshire County Council talked about the community emergency plans for the county and the future of the Community Resilience Project . Click on the attached link to view Jo's slide presentation. Slides
Prior to the meeting we circulated a document that national ACRE and others produced, which is a useful guide of how to become a resilient community. ACRE guide
The audio from the meeting is available here
Tuesday 25th February at the Hunsbury Hill Centre.
Topic for discussion: Lessening the impact of climate change on your village
Climate change is becoming a key issue for communities and many want to know what they can do to lessen the impact of those changes in their area. We discussed what measures a village could take to help off-set climate change in their local environment and even become a carbon neutral village. We showed a small film about Ashton Hayes, the first carbon neutral village in England and our new Rural Officer, Jenni Hedges, updated us on the small ways we can lessen the carbon footprint of our villages. We also shared initiatives that your villages have taken to become greener or more environmentally friendly.
Click on the attached link to view the slide presentation.
Here is a list of useful website links that we shared at the event.
If you would like further information, please contact Elaine O'Leary or Jenni Hedges on 01604 765 888 or email: [email protected]
