A Parish Plan for Winterslow
A Parish Plan for Winterslow?
The People of Winterslow say YES !
On Friday 16th February a public meeting was held in the Village Hall to debate the issue of a "Parish Plan". This was the culmination of six months work and public consultation preparing for this immensely important day. Over one hundred and sixty people attended the meeting to hear a presentation from Annie Scadden of Salisbury District Council and take part in an open debate. The debate was lively and engaging with a wide range of questions being asked and diverse views being expressed. Ultimately the groundswell of opinion was in favour of proceeding with the plan, as was reflected in the vote which saw only four people opposed to the proposal.
As well as the attendance confirming that all the hard work had been worthwhile the community positively demonstrated its commitment to supporting the initiative when fourteen people stepped forward to volunteer for membership of the Steering Group and a further sixteen identified a wish to be involved in specific aspects of the plan as members of a "working party".
Having been given a mandate to precede the Winterslow Parish Plan Steering Group held its inaugural meeting on Tuesday 10th February. At this meeting the focus was on producing a constitution, identifying the terms of reference, establishing an outline strategy for taking the project forward and identifying individuals to stand for the principal steering group posts.
Steering Group Members
Chair: Mick Brown fifty-five, has lived in Winterslow since 1998 and is married to Ellen who has been a resident in the village for twenty years. They have five children, Ellen’s three boys and Mick’s son and daughter. Ellen is a Domiciliary Foot Care Specialist and Mick retired from the Fire Service after twenty-seven years, having served in Hampshire and Wiltshire. He finished his career as a Senior Fire Officer in charge of Wiltshire’s Fire Safety Department. For the last two years he has served on the Parish Council and has been the driving force behind the move towards a parish plan.
As a result of being elected as Chair of the Steering Group he has tendered his resignation as a parish councillor in order to direct all his efforts into the production of the Plan
Vice Chair: Jessie Page is nineteen and is currently working in Salisbury but will be off to university in October to study French and politics. She has lived ion Winterslow all her life and is taking the opportunity to join the Steering Group "in order to put something back into the community she has grown up in".
Vice Chair: Phil Silk is 23 Years Old and has lived in the village, with his parents, for just over 10 years. Last year he graduated from the University of Plymouth with a BSc (Hons) Earth Science. He is now working as an Onshore Planner for an oil company in Bournemouth.
Secretary: Vicky Kuhle is fortyish! (Classified information) and has lived in Winterslow for nearly five years. She shares home with husband and her two boys aged thirteen and ten. Vicky helps with her husband’s home based business that operates in the Internet Communications field. One day a week she undertakes voluntary work based in Tidworth, in the Help the Heroes Office, and is looking forward to a greater involvement in village life by her participation in the production of the Parish Plan.
Treasurer: Ian Kay, aged sixty-one, is originally from Lancashire and considers himself very lucky to have lived in Winterslow for twenty of the last thirty years. Most of his working life has been spent in the south of England in the sales and distribution area of the cut flower trade. He is now working locally as the Site Manager for Wyvern College in Laverstock. He lives with his wife Viv and has three grown up children.
Paula Page, forty-nine, is married to Rick and has lived in the Village with her three children since 1991. All three children have attended the preschool and school. She was involved with the preschool committee, first as treasurer and then as chair for about three years. Having qualified as a teacher in 1981 she now works as an education advisor for ‘Look After the Children’ in Wiltshire.
Brian Goggin moved to Winterslow in 1972 from Salisbury. He has three grown up children, two having married in All Saints Church. He has spent forty-seven years in his profession as a Chartered Building Surveyor, running his own business for twenty-eight years. Brian was a member of the village Committee at the time of the construction of the Village Hall. At the age of sixty-six he is now retired and kept very busy looking after three grandchildren and walking his not so little dog (or is it the dog who takes Brian for a walk?). Having helped to shape the structure of buildings in the Salisbury area he is now researching the past by studying Saxon Architecture.
Trenchard Torode is seventy-seven and is married to Lisa and has five grown up children, three living abroad and two in the UK. ‘Tren’ moved into the village, from Kent, in 1978. Having completed National Service, he has owned his own garage, operated a swimming pool installation business, has worked as a builder and also a designer (CAD). He has built and driven rally and track racing vehicles
Debbie Evans, aged forty-three, is married to Jonathan and has two girls aged nine and seven. She moved into Winterslow two years ago and is currently working in service development for NHS Wiltshire in coordination with social care based in Devizes. Following a number of years in marketing, business and organisation management for the pharmaceutical industry, Debbie served on the board of South Wiltshire Primary Care Trust.
Janie Methuish is "fifty three going on thirty" and has lived in the village for sixteen years, with husband Jeremy, bringing up three children. She is a tennis coach working at Godolphin School in Salisbury and Farliegh Preparatory School near Andover.
Mike Taylor moved into Winterslow in January 2008 (still required to carry a visitors visa) with his wife, Dee. Now retired from a career in IT as a commercial director he is, at sixty-two, enjoying his still growing family of five children and five grandchildren. Mike will have a ready source of information about life in Winterslow as one of his daughters and her partner live in the village.
Mark Tucker is 37 years old Social Worker with the Community Team supporting people with learning difficulties/disabilities and has been back in the village after a ten-year break. He lives with his wife Ghazala and children Liliana and Yusef. Mark grew up in Winterslow and went to the local school. He returned in 2007 as, "he felt it was the best place to bring up his family". He says, "I am really looking forward to supporting the local community to develop a plan that will go towards ensuring that children have the continued opportunity to enjoy this very special village"
Tim Elliot has been married to Vivien for forty-three years and bought their first house in Winterslow in 1971 and have lived in the village ever since. They have a son John and daughter Trish who also live in the village. Tim, at sixty-eight, is retired having worked for the Naafi for thirty-three years, ending his career as Director of Operations. He has five grand children, two currently at the Village School and two who previously attended. Tim now makes the most of his retirement by globe trotting, visiting all the countries on his "must see" list.
Should you require further information on the paper submitted to the Parish Council or alternatively if you wish to debate the topic you can contact Mike Brown, parish councillor, on 862842.YOUR COMMUNITY ...... YOUR FUTURE ........ YOUR PLAN
Some links for further information
What Makes a Good Parish Plan?"
http://www.ruralcommunities.gov.uk/files/CA%20199%20-%20What%20makes%20a%20good%20Parish%20Plan.pdf
Parish Planning Toolkit (published by Action with Communities in Rural England – "ACRE")
http://www.acre.org.uk/communityengagement_parishplans_toolkit.html
Parish Planning Resource Centre ("Everything on this site is free to use and has been provided to ensure that these vital community documents stand the best chance of integration into service provider's strategies, as intended through the Rural White Paper 2000.")
http://www.parishplanning.co.uk/index.html
Integration of Parish Plans into the Wider Systems of Local Government> (Report to DEFRA, July 2007) Executive Summary
http://www.defra.gov.uk/rural/pdfs/communities/pplan-execsumm072007.pdf
Full report (204pp)
http://www.defra.gov.uk/rural/pdfs/communities/pplan-report072007.pdf
A sample plan (this is Sparsholt, but there are lots of others – Google "parish plans" or search via the Commission for Rural Communities website http://crc.rocktimeweb.net/
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