Minutes Dec 09
Winterslow Parish Plan Steering Group
Tuesday 5th December 2009
Present: Tim Elliott, Ian Kay, Brian Goggin, Paula Page, Debbie Evans, Tren Torode, Betty Page, Mick Brown, Penny Fooks, Mike Taylor, Janie Melhuish
Tim welcomed Mick Brown back after his recent hospitalisation.
1. Apologies: Clive Broadley, Vicky Kuhle.
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The Childrens’ Questionnaire has been drawn up and passed to the School but Paula has yet to hear from Jane Greenaway (Head) that it has been completed.
Community Plan – Tim and Brian had attended an initial meeting called to discuss the setting up of a steering group to oversee the review/rewrite of the Community Plan. Following on from this, Mick said he would having a meeting with Richard Britton and Tom Bray on 11 December to discuss the remit of the proposed Southern Area Community Plan Steering Group, of which he and Brian Goggin would be members. It was noted that of 14 parishes in the Southern Area, only 4 had so far completed PPs.
4, Review of Community Questionnaire Distribution/Collection -
· Tren said he had received all the distribution lists back and summarised the details on his spreadsheet. He tabled a resume of the number of CQs returned which showed that 636 CQs had been returned out of 762 issued – a success rate of 83.2%. The SG agreed that this represented an excellent response and well above that achieved by some other PP groups.
· Closer analysis of the figures showed that in regard to Lopcombe Corner 33 CQs had been returned out of 54 issued – a success rate of 61%. It was agreed that, in view of the level of response, there was no need to revisit the LC results.
· Debbie questioned whether the CQ results were robust enough for use with 3rd party discussions, but the overall response level was considered to be acceptable for the level of discussions anticipated. In this regard, Debbie asked why there was a focus on LC in planning matters. Brian pointed out that there at least 2 residents there who were interested in development and it was for that reason that he had been concerned to establish the overall level of LC CQ response to be sure that there was adequate spread.
Specifically in regard to planning, it was noted and agreed that there would be no detailed discussions on planning matters as these would be covered by the Village Design Statement – and anticipated action point from the HBE section of the PP. However, this would not preclude 3rd party discussions as part of the consultation process.
· Tren said there were also some issues about missed houses in Easton Common Hill, Guttridge Farm and Dunstable – committee members said that some questionnaires had been returned through their doors, and so they had no idea which houses they had come from. Any possible missed houses will be followed up.
· Considerable discussion took place over the manner in which CQs had been completed (i.e. ticks per household or ticks per person within the household) and it was agreed that “per household” had been the overwhelming method, but the small number who had adopted the “per person” approach needed to be acknowledged within the final PP when the data capture methods were being described.
· Tren’s summary sheet gave percentages of response from different areas of the parish. He is also currently trying to summarise the comments element of the CQs. Several people said they had left off the comments when inputting the questionnaires’ data – Tren said he will e-mail the standard format comment section to everyone to fill in if they needed to. He said he had so far only received comments sections from 9 distributors from a total of 29 batches of questionnaires sent out.
Mick was asked to email all the volunteers to ensure that they also completed their comments sections and returned them to Tren.
- It was agreed that the summarised data from the returns now needed to be sent out to the Topic Groups so that they could begin work on developing actions and themes from the responses. Tren said that he should be able to email this information to TG leaders by the middle of next week (16 December?). Mick drew attention to the 1994 village survey and said that TGs would find the statistical comparisons useful in their discussions. Mike asked that the stats from part 1 of the CQ also be sent out to TGs.
- Mick said he would contact Mark Tucker as Mark knew someone who could possibly help with data analysis, which would help Tren. Mick is willing to help also. Penny remarked that the integrity of the data would be enhanced if 3rd parties were involved in the analysis work.
- Mick said that the working parties looking at the data and deciding on outcomes would take 2 months. Penny asked if the groups would be expected to present their data at the end of the 2 months – Mick said the preliminary information the groups had collated should be sent out at least 1 week before the SG meeting in February so everybody had a chance to read through and digest the information.
- Debbie suggested that the key stakeholders should be given a chance to respond before we publicise our actions – Mick said they will be consulted during the 2 months consultation time, however, if issues arise in the group meetings then the interested parties should be consulted immediately. Mick also suggested that issues which are not feasible at the moment (or for other reasons) be deferred for the time being. He also said that the comments are important as they show what is on peoples’ minds.
- NB For further detail see item 12 “Look Forward”
7. Roadshow - in February we will firm up the amendments to the project timeline
- Mike said that a mini questionnaire had been sent to 80+ businesses in the village. There had been some interest, albeit in many cases on a one-off basis, in a business forum. It was hoped that such a forum could be held in mid/late March 2010. Mick said the timescale would fit in and will allow the group to investigate the business community. Debbie said the forum and allied discussions, whilst springing from the PP process, would run in parallel to it. Mike said it was important to identify the key issues for the business community – hopefully people would be excited and want to be involved. Tim said it would be good if the business forum could have a professional facilitator, perhaps from Business Link to be the driver and also speakers with specialisms like tax or accessing government funds. The Federation of Small Businesses may be able to help. Debbie said that the group should be at arms length from the general steering group. It was agreed that the first forum would be free to attendees.
- Mike asked if somebody could step in to help with the group as 2 members will be on holiday in February/March. Mike will send Ed Thomas an e-mail to see if he can support.
10. Finance update - Ian reported that finances were the same as last month. Tren said he was waiting for reimbursement of some printing costs..
11. Parish Council matters – Mick had attended the previous evening’s Parish Council meeting – our money is in the current account. Mick asked to have our money ring-fenced, the new Clerk said there was only £400.00 which Mick had challenged. It also appeared that the grant of £400 had not been transferred in April from the Parish Council.
Analysis of raw data
Topic groups to interrogate their section data and Part 1(cross referenced to 1994 survey)
Meeting to confirm project time line
Preliminary discussion on findings of Topic Groups
Editorial Team to start drafting the Digest
Business Forum
Meeting to be presented with draft action plans by topic groups
Check for areas of “cross over”
Editorial to refine digest
Topic groups finalise action plans and forward to Editorial team by end of month
Produce digest early in month
Outline presentation to Parish Council (special meeting)
Print appropriate number of Digests
Public presentation of findings – “Road Show in the Village Hall
8 week consultation
Editorial team finalise draft layout for The Parish Plan
Start producing internet version of PP
Revise Parish Plan following 8 week consultation
Print required number of copies of PP
Produce final version of internet PP
Early presentation to Parish Council
Late September public launch of finalised PP
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