The Ashton Neighbourhood Board met to discuss the Plan for Neighbourhoods programme and how to develop a plan for Ashton. The board was scheduled to discuss the terms of reference, membership, engagement strategy, and capacity funding for the Ashton Plan for Neighbourhoods. They were also scheduled to ratify decisions made at previous board workshops.

Ashton Plan for Neighbourhoods

The Ashton Neighbourhood Board was scheduled to discuss the Ashton Plan for Neighbourhoods, a regeneration programme funded by the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG). Ashton was selected as one of 75 towns nationally to receive £20 million over 10 years. The board was scheduled to discuss how to use the funding to support improvements to the town and strengthen communities.

The board was scheduled to ratify several decisions made at previous workshops:

• Altering the Plan for Neighbourhoods boundary to include Ashton Moss.
• An updated vision statement.
• Spatial areas for intervention.
• Priority themes for focus.

The report pack stated that the Plan for Neighbourhoods Guidance requires the Regeneration Plan for Ashton to set a clear vision. The vision statement prepared as part of the work on the Long Term Plan for Towns programme was presented to the board for comment at a working session on 15 July 2025, and subsequently updated. The board confirmed that the updated vision statement reflected the comments raised in the previous discussion.

The board was also scheduled to discuss targeting funding at the town centre and areas of greatest need, using data to enable evidence-based decisions on which neighbourhoods will be focus areas. The agreed focus categories for the Plan for Neighbourhoods funding were:

• Work, productivity and skills
• Regeneration, high streets and heritage
• Cohesion
• Safety and security
• Education and opportunity
• Health and wellbeing

Engagement Strategy

The Ashton Neighbourhood Board was scheduled to discuss an engagement strategy for the Ashton Plan for Neighbourhoods. The strategy outlines how the board will engage with targeted groups, including local community organisations, to inform the content of the Plan for Neighbourhoods submission.

The engagement strategy was developed in collaboration with Action Together, and was submitted to the MHCLG in August 2025. The MHCLG accepted the Engagement Strategy in September 2025, which triggered the release of the second tranche of capacity funding to the council.

The engagement strategy defines three key workstreams to progress the engagement work:

1. Update those organisations previously engaged on the broadened themes of the Plan for Neighbourhood guidance, ensuring that the previous feedback received is still current and relevant.
2. Seek to address the gaps identified following the previous engagement period.
3. St Peter's Deep-dive Engagement Pilot building on the Live-Well initiative in what is one of the most deprived wards in Ashton.

Capacity Funding

The Ashton Neighbourhood Board was scheduled to discuss capacity funding expenditure of £0.450m allocated by the MHCLG as part of the Plan for Neighbourhood Funding.

£0.250m of this total was approved by the Executive Cabinet of the council on 14 February 2024. The remaining £0.200m will require approval by the Executive Cabinet on 29 October 2025.

The government guidance advises that Neighbourhood Boards can spend their capacity funding allocation flexibly across the full lifespan of the programme. However, they are encouraged to maximise the use of the capacity funding throughout investment period 1 (from the 2026 to 2027 financial year to the 2029 to 2030 financial year), to build capacity locally and undertake the extensive engagement and consultation required with their community.

A full list of programme areas of expenditure is provided in Appendix 1 of the Capacity Funding report, including:

• Developing the Regeneration Plan and Investment Plan for Ashton-under-Lyne.
• Delivering engagement, consultation, events, and other related activities.
• Promoting the work being undertaken by the Neighbourhood Board on the Ashton Plan for Neighbourhoods.
• Supporting local businesses and increasing town centre footfall.
• Targeted engagement activity using focus groups with local groups and organisations.
• Ashton Neighbourhood Board constitution advice and support.

Membership and Terms of Reference

The Ashton Neighbourhood Board was scheduled to discuss its membership and terms of reference.

The guidance notes that the Neighbourhood Board must be chaired by a local community leader or local businessperson, with the membership requirements set out in Table 1 of the Membership and Terms of Reference report. The guidance states that the chair must be appointed in agreement with the local Member of Parliament.

As a result of the updated government guidance, a review of the skills and experience has been undertaken by the Chair of the Neighbourhood Board, Phill Brown MBE in consultation with the local authority to establish an Executive Board that will decide how the funding is to be spent. In addition, an Advisory Board will be established with members consulted at key stages in the Plan preparation.

The geographic boundary for each Neighbourhood Plan area is determined by the Built Up Area (December 2022) defined by the Office for National Statistics. The Plan boundary submitted is included in Appendix 4 of the Membership and Terms of Reference report and has been slightly amended to ensure that Ashton Moss is included within the Plan boundary and aligns with the aspirations of the Ashton Mayoral Development Zone.

The Ashton Neighbourhood Board Terms of Reference state that the purpose of the board is:

The Ashton Neighbourhood Board will be the vehicle for the preparation of the Ashton Town Plan as part of the Long Term Plan for Towns programme and will provide challenge and accountability to ensure local priorities are progressed and delivered in a timely, cost efficient way through the review and monitoring of the implementation of the Ashton Town Plan.

The terms of reference also set out the scope of the board, accountability and reporting, membership, meeting arrangements, procedures, and access to information.