1 RENEW KENTISH TOWN
ReNew Kentish Town is an organisation set up in 1999 by concerned members of the local community to draw up a vision for the sustainable development of our area, based on the desires and ambitions of residents and businesses. We are seeking grant funding in order to convert our vision into a reality.

2 STATEMENT OF PURPOSE
The group exists to improve Kentish Town by involving local people and organisations in generating and implementing ideas for a better living and working environment. It aims to build on the area's existing assets and the rich diversity and talents of its people to influence ideas for its future.

3 BACKGROUND
Kentish Town is an urban inner London area. It has a mixed community both in terms of a diverse population and in terms of the variety of land uses - retail, housing, business and leisure. It also boasts excellent public transport links. However, it suffers problems often associated with cities - traffic congestion and pollution, lack of open green space, declining employment and poor housing. But the area also includes a very large tract of semi-derelict lands used for the storage of building materials and plant, and other light industrial activities. We believe that the appropriate development of these lands provides the key to the regeneration of Kentish Town.

4 THE APPROACH
We want to ensure that when developers and urban planners turn their attention to the commercial possibilities presented by the vacant and under- used lands in the heart of Kentish Town, we have a vision that we can articulate clearly. The strategy has three stages - seeking views of local groups, mounting an interactive exhibition and combining the results to produce a workable vision for redevelopment of these key areas in Kentish Town. Reaching people in KT: over the coming months, we approach schools, community groups, businesses, local history groups, residents associations, amateur dramatics groups. Everyone who lives and works in the area will be invited to contribute their vision of what Kentish Town means to them, and what it could be in the future.

5 EXHIBITION
These visions will form the basis of an exhibition that will be held in a central location over two weeks around the end of March 2001. It will both inform local people about the issues and seek to gain their views. It will involve a variety of media and a high level of interactivity to increase its appeal and generate local views. It will exploit the considerable wealth of experience and local knowledge that it exists in the area.

6 LONGER TERM STRATEGY
The outcome of our efforts in contacting the KT public and the exhibition will provide a huge range and wealth of local views for the future of Kentish Town. This will provide an unparalleled source of local opinion and once it has been distilled, we intend to use to produce a report available both in written form and on a website that we intend to set up. It is important to stress that ReNew Kentish is not looking to draw up a blueprint for change, and try to impose that on others. We have no single vision for the future of our community. We cannot predict the contributions that people will make to the exhibition. Renew Kentish Town will use the energy and ideas generated by the exhibition to further the debate in innovative ways. Following the exhibition, we will work to ensure that the people who live, work and play in this area will be encouraged to express their ideas for sustainable developments that will add value to Kentish Town.

7 WHAT IS FUNDING FOR?
Until now running costs for the group's work have been supported by contributions from the members of ReNew Kentish Town. In order to mount an exhibition we will need funding for the hire of premises, materials for the content and for publicity. We estimate we will need a total of £8,500.

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