Minutes 14/4/2009
Winterslow Parish Plan Steering GroupTuesday 14th April 2009
Present: Mick Brown, Tim Elliot, Penny Fooks, Ian Kay, Vicky Kuhle, Janie Melhuish, Betty Page, Paula Page, Philip Silk, Mike Taylor, Tren Torode, Mark Tucker
Volunteers: Caroline Henderson David Houghton, David Marke, Dawn Wright, Gina Hartwell, John Thomas, Judy Weston, June Verity, Kay Putman, Lynn Sillett, Martie Stanwell, Mike Morgan-Jones, Pam Robinson, Richard Chambers
Apologies: Apologies were received from Clive Broadley, Debbie Evans, Brian Goggin, Jessie Page, Bob Cooke, Bridget Munrow, Chris Bottle, Mike Munrow, Sarah Byerley, Gordon Verity.
1. Minutes of the last meeting - the minutes of the SG meeting of the 10th March 2009 were read and agreed as a true record, proposed by Tim, seconded by Penny
2. Matters Arising
(i) Penny questioned what NR meant on e-mails, do they need
a response - Mick said NR stood for Response Needed members need only respond to the relevant ones.
(ii) Notice board - approval has been given by the school head but sponsorship
is required to cover the cost. Ian offered to make one if he can have a design.
(iii) Brian now has a copy of the Local Plan.
(iv) Mick has now booked the Main Hall for the 2nd October to present
information to the community.
(v) Penny questioned the "Action" item on minute 4 from the last meeting,
Mick said this related to vacancies.
Action - Mick to provide details (re (ii)) .
3. Community First Response
David Newton gave a short talk on Community First Response - the ambulance service is willing to train volunteers to respond to first aid emergencies. The area covered would be a 3 mile radius of the village - last year there were 44 calls made which would have been suitable for a First Response action, equating to 3 to 4 calls a month. If we want to go ahead we need to raise £1,800 for equipment. The Parish Council is willing in principal to supporting the scheme financially with other Parish Councils who would benefit from it. Penny asked if we need to get approval, David said no, we just need the support to find the funding and the volunteers. Tim asked if we need to ask the other parishes we would cover and ask them to raise some money. David said he would contact Whiteparish and see how they set it up in their village. David Marke asked how the volunteers would be mobilised. David said that following a 999 call the Ambulance control would page the local volunteer. Mick said he would keep in touch with David Newton. Dawn asked if the volunteers would be covered by insurance, David said this is part of the scheme.
Action - Dave to find out how long the training lasted and would contact the other Parishes reference the scheme.
4. Correspondence
(i) John had information about dog-walking in respect of advertising the service on the Village Website
(ii) Mike said we need to utilise the website to advertise businesses (web
address is www.winterslow.org.uk
(iii) Mike said there is a potential overlap between topic groups, members
must identify the overlaps and decide who is to act on which parts of their remit.
(iv) Mike Taylor suggested that the Culture and Leisure and the Community Facilities and Involvement groups might merge. They will
arrange their first next meeting this evening.
(v) Penny said could contact lists be made public to the steering group so
potential overlaps could be checked, possibly by the 20th April by e-mail.
5. Chairman's Report
(i) Mick gave some feedback about the current situation - we have to present
the Draft Action Plans with supporting data to the Unitary Authority and village in early 2010 at the start of an 8-week consultation period. At present we
have 8 topic groups and 30 people involved.
6. Vacancies
(i) Minutes Secretary - Betty Page has stepped into the breach.
(ii) Statistician - still to be filled.
(iii) Communications advisor - still to be filled.
(iv) Website helpers - Mick identified a core group had been established to look at the Website consisting of Mike Morgan-Jones (Web Master), Gordon Verity (structure & Bob Cook (graphics)
The group will report back in due course.
7. Treasurer's Report
Ian identified that the closing balance for 2008/2009 was £514. This was the result of paying Bob Cook for graphics support and receiving £500 in grants from Salisbury District Council (RIP) Subsequent to the closing balance a grant of £400 was received from Winterslow Parish Council for the year 2009/2010 which will show in the next accounts.
Penny asked if she could claim for phone calls - Mick said keep details and make a claim for such expenses.
Penny will is to the Village Hall Management Committee meeting next Wednesday to save her making numerous phone calls to activity groups.
8. Fundraising
Brian had looked at official funding.
The Lion's Head quiz night is up and running with 50% of the profits going to the Parish Plan fund. Everyone was reminded that these nights are held on the second Sunday of each month and Mick asked for the group to support the evening.
9. Members' Reports
Editorial Team - are responsible for the final document; they are meeting again shortly and will then present their ideas.
Communications Strategy - they have produced a document, which was sent out to be adopted as a guiding document.
Project Plan - Phil said it is up to date and asked for any e-mails to be sent to him so he can be kept informed.
10. Working Party Reports
Social and Healthcare - Penny said they have had a meeting and begun to identify groups and individuals to speak to. Penny is going to the AGM of the Friendship Society. She had picked up that people still don't really understand what the Plan is about; perhaps the Communications Team could simplify aims so they can be repeated (and remembered) easily. Mick said this was a good idea and they could be put in the Parish Magazine. There is a good summary of the aims of a village plan in the Citizen magazine. Tim said could there be a link to an explanatory website.
Transport and Access - Tren is the team leader, the first meeting was on the 13th April. The team concluded that the roads are atrocious, traffic calming is a possibility, housing developments might lead to congestion, the roads in winter are a problem, parking is an issue around the Methodist Church and also hedges are overgrown. Lorries have been unable to turn around the Causeway when they have been led there by SATNAVS. Pam said the Parish Council has asked for hedges to be cut. Mick said we need to liaise with the Parish Council so we don't overlap.
Environment and Biodiversity - Mark and Phil are joint team leaders, they are concerned with the physical environment, rural protection and sustainability. They will ask what do we want from our environment and biodiversity.
Community Facilities and Involvement - Paula said they need some volunteers. They will investigate how people access facilities and activities, specially newcomers to the village. A village hall event with all groups represented might be a good idea. The group want to talk to people who run activities/facilities. Mike Morgan-Jones said the "Window on Winterslow" would be a good starting point, he tries to keep it up to date. Mike said a paper document is hard to keep up to date. Mike said telephone numbers are a privacy issue on the website. Suggestions were made and Mike said there was a facility on the website for e-mail contacts to be shown.
Economic Wellbeing - Mike Taylor wants a list of businesses in the village and then can start on a list of questions.
Planning - Tim talked about a Village Design Statement. He had downloaded examples and said it looked an enormous task, a meeting was needed to see how to proceed. Design statements are very complicated - can we do a Parish Plan and Design Statement properly? Mick said he could send out an e-mail identifying were Village Design Statements could be viewed.
Educational Facilities - Janie said Lynn has volunteered, also Sarah Byerley representing the village school. The group would look at a wide spectrum including adult education, Pre School and toddlers. There will be questions referring to this in the questionnaire. Personal contacts will be followed up, resources, funding and other venues identified. Mike suggested contacting the Friends of Winterslow School.
Crime and Community Safety - the group were compiling a short questionnaire to get feedback, issues covered are home security, anti-social behaviour, neighbourhood watch, fire safety in the home, fire response, ambulance service and the difficulty the emergency services have in locating addresses.
Parish Council Matters - it was suggested that a Youth Council be set up in the village to find out what the young people of the village want. This could be linked to the Round Table or Duke of Edinburgh's Award. Penny suggested identifying the problems first, then asking people if there was any support for the ideas suggested. Any action plan has to be supported by the community and the community may come up with new ideas. John asked what the Plan would be like - Mick replied that the task of the SG was to identify the issues then decide upon actions to deal with them.
Culture and Leisure - Penny and Mike have identified questions and will meet again before next Wednesday.
Mick said that all groups need to be aware of the terms of reference of the other groups so there is no overlap.
Action - Mick to circulate all Terms Of Reference
11. Items for Discussion
(i) Mick proposed that the procedure for approaching the community would be:-
a) First visit to each house - go with basic introductory leaflet
(inc a photograph of the person delivering + e-mail address), say who you are
and what SG and PP is about, then explain they would be back later with a full
Community Questionnaire (CQ) and then ask 3 "breaking the ice" questions, make a
brief record of responses;
b) Go back at a later date to deliver the CQ
c) Go back again, probably five days later to collect the completed questionnaires.
d) A large print version will be made for visually impaired people.
Mick though that the village could be divided up into blocks of approximately 25 houses for each SG member to visit. The volunteers were asked if they would participate in this, all agreed - Mick said it was important to try to make the exercise personal by engaging the community on a one to one basis.
Action - Mick to allocate blocks of houses to every one. Mick has a copy of the Electoral Roll and Parish Magazine list, which he will utilise.
Judy said that it would not be a cross-section but Mick assured her that every house would be targeted.
Paula said that everyone will be given an opportunity to fill in the questionnaire but she did not think everybody would.
Kay suggested pre-warning the community of the visits in the Parish Magazine as people worry if unknown visitors knock on their door.
Notice of these visits will be in the Parish Magazine, but non-Parish Magazine households will need extra input in the early part of May so they know what to expect.
Tren asked if newcomers would be included - they would and it would be a good way to introduce newcomers to the village.
Mick said he wanted a 70% response to the CQ in order to guarantee the data used in decision-making, re the Plan, had credibility.
Tim said Parish Magazine deliverers could deliver the questionnaire as well.
Mick said volunteers and the SG members who deliver the questionnaire must be clear about the aims of the Parish Plan and to ring him for clarification if unsure before starting visits.
Tim asked about timing - Penny said the information sheet should be ready for May.
Paula said we must all take responsibility to inform absent people about decisions being made at meetings; they could ring Mick after the meetings to find out if they need to.
Paula also said the deliverers of the CQ would need some identification - photos of the SG or Volunteer will go on the information sheet. At the next meeting on Tuesday 5th May Mick will take photos of all volunteers, SG members and the Topic Groups.
(ii) Mick then spoke about the Community Questionnaire - it would go out in the first two weeks of July and then be retrieved before the school holidays. On the 2nd October we will present the issues identified in the CQ to the community, and there will be a further opportunity for the community to come back to us with further issues on that occasion.
(iii) Articles will be placed in the Parish Magazine in May and June.
Action - Phil and Mike Morgan-Jones are to set up an SG e-mail address on the Website to allow people to ask questions when the CQ is delivered.
Penny asked if we would have enough time in the planned timescale.
Mick said the main questionnaire would have to be worked on at the same time as preliminary market research happens. The CQ will address different age groups within the households and have separate sections for each Topic Group.
(iii) Mick asked for a volunteer to collect a library of documents to be shown to act as a historical record and support the Parish Plan when it is presented to the community, Unitary Authority 7 Stakeholders, perhaps a digital library. There were no volunteers.
(iv) Summer fetes - Mick asked for ideas, Paula and Penny volunteered to run an "information stall" at the School fete on the 20th June, the Parish Fete and Robin Hill fete were also suggested. Each topic Group will provide exhibits
(v) The emergency services will be invited to support the Road Show on October 2nd.
12. Any other business
(i) Janie said that Sarah Byerley will volunteer in the Education group.
(ii) Mick said he felt that the SG should not be enlarged any further as it would become unmanageable. However, any one wishing to help could join the established Topic Group working parties. Duncan Moody has offered to help as a volunteer and he will be invited to join a working party.
(iii) It was stated that families who have got historical links with the village are not represented on the SG. It was suggested that a "focus Group" could be established to facilitate the involvement of these members of the community.
(iv) The Editorial team are hoping to have a foreword by a notable person, perhaps the most senior member of the community and a person from the Unitary Authority - Connie, at 104, was thought to be someone who could be considered.
(v) Tren asked if absentee landlords would be contacted to reply to CQ. It was decided not to contact them, as the aim was to ask people who were resident in the village to fill in the questionnaire.
13. Next meeting.
The next meeting will be held in the Table Tennis room on Tuesday, 5th May at 7.30 pm.
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