CHOLSEY'S 2020 VISION -- developing our Parish Plan for the future Steering Group: Minutes of the Meeting held 16 January 2006

Brightwell-cum-Sotwell Parish Plan
Celia outlined how BcS had gone about developing their Plan - she stressed that she was not advocating for their approach, as she feels that each community needs to do what’s right for them - but that we were very welcome to share their experiences. Because of the funding scheme, they had had to complete their Plan within a year, which had meant that they were under a lot of pressure. She felt that the process had been very valuable in terms of encouraging more involvement by the community in community groups, and had also provided very useful information for the Parish Council, and to influence Planning and Development decisions in the village. She said that views and issues will surface that we don’t necessarily agree with, and that all questions for the questionnaire must be ‘neutral’ and precise. They had a 73% response rate for the questionnaire, which they were very happy with. They delivered and collected the questionnaires by hand - in sealed envelopes. They’re happy to share the questionnaire with us, if that would be helpful.

Their process was as follows:
1) April Open Day - all clubs and groups were encouraged to have a stand in the Village Hall to promote their organisation and to invite new members. They then used the back room to launch the Parish Plan, with a Suggestions Box for questions and topics to be included in the Plan. They also asked people to sign-in, (198 people attended, plus the reps from all groups), and to volunteer if they wanted to help in future. (40 people did so, and they later delivered and collected the questionnaires). They put flags into a Village Map to show who had attended the Open Day and where in the village they came from. They asked young people (who wanted to see a skate park in the village) to have a stand, and to form a Youth Committee. A junior Badminton Club was also formed as a result of the day.
BcS is much smaller than Cholsey, with a population of about 1500 (1200 on Electoral Roll).
The Primary School set aside a whole week for a “Planning for Real” project, at the end of which, the children produced a Village Plan, based on what they had studied about the village and the environment during the week. The Head, Roger Grant, may still have some information/packs.
To promote the Open Day, a slip had been posted through every door.
2) Establish Working Groups, and collect data, research the needs, gaps and issues.
3) July Village Fete - to consult on key themes, especially Affordable Housing, and whether the proposed questions were the right ones. As their community is less than 3,000 people, they count as ‘Rural’ and some special housing arrangements are applicable (which allow priority to be given to allocating affordable housing to local people, as well as those with priority on SODC Housing Register). ORCC (Suzanne Willis) helped with conducting an independent Housing Needs Survey, which she collated. They had to decide whether to have housing questions in the Questionnaire as well.
·    Between April and July, they held 1-2-1 meetings with people and with clubs and societies to consult on the issues and the types of questions that should be asked.
·    Between July and October, they drafted the questionnaire (to be out by October)
4) October - circulate and collect questionnaires
5) January - Village Newsletter with initial findings from questionnaires (simple 4 x A4 and easyread language)
6) February - final village meeting to look at the draft Plan and Action Plans, and to make final adjustments and comments, before it was published.

 Process - they had 12 people on their Steering Group.
Each Working Group had 2-3 people, and elected its own Chair. Each Group worked up their own issues, and made sure whether the concerns were relevant to several people in the community, or were just one-person issues. Celia recommended approaching people direct to ask them to help with specific jobs.
Someone in the village with his own marketing business analysed the questionnaires, at a preferential rate. For some questions, they had ‘free text’, which was collated by hand by volunteers.

Website - they developed a village website for the Plan, but this is now a stand-alone village website, with its own steering committee.
They developed a Village Design Statement, as part of the Housing work - as part of the Village is a Conservation Area. This was not included in the Village Plan, but has been very useful in influencing SODC Planners, and also Developers.
Celia recommended using all the events that we already have, for consultation and involvement, rather than setting up a whole lot of new events. We would also need to co-ordinate the consultation of groups and societies, to make sure that people weren’t consulted several times by different working groups....
They didn’t pilot the questionnaire first, and the Steering Group agreed which questions would be included, and acted as a ‘moderator’ to make sure that no leading questions were included.
They kept the Action Plans separate from the formally published Plan, as they wanted the action plans to be living and reviewable documents. The Steering Group continues to meet annually to monitor that the Action Plans are being kept to.
The published Plan was edited by a volunteer, who was a former journalist. They deliberately kept the Plan in an easyread style with no jargon. Photographs were taken by volunteers in the village. The village Printer printed it.
They did offer confidential support from volunteers for anyone wanting help to fill out the questionnaire - but this was not taken up.
They only issued one questionnaire per household, not one per person. They did not have a separate youth questionnaire.
Celia felt it was important to use the village magazine to continue to keep up interest and momentum.
Helen Crofts is the officer at SODC, who is responsible for helping to support Parish Plans.
At the following year’s Village Fete, they displayed the children’s Planning for Real Village Plan to keep up interest in it.

Geraldine thanked Celia very much for coming to the meeting and for sharing the BcS experiences so helpfully.

Update from Working Groups
Geraldine confirmed that unfortunately George Crockett and Richard Cory-Wright had resigned from the Group, which meant that we needed new leads for Transport and for the Economy. Everyone to think if they know anyone who might be interested in these topics.

Sue offered to let Geraldine have a note of who had expressed an interest in which topics from the intial public meeting.

For Community and Leisure, David confirmed that he was looking at this from the Churches’ angle. Geraldine would contact Silke and Natalie to see how this work was progressing.

Geraldine and Stella would review whether there was any overlap/scope for combining this work with the Youth and Education work.

Alan reported back on Health. He has mapped local services, and has spoken to Dr. Andrew Vernon about the possibility of an ‘outreach’ G.P. surgery in the village (as this was the most popular issue raised at the public meeting). This would not be out of the question, subject to suitable accommodation. Alan feels that he is ready to start asking key questions in the village.

Barry reported that he feels they have a fair idea of the questions they’d like to ask about Environment. They still need a suitable map to be provided by Oxon CC, but hopefully this will be forthcoming. Sue would contact Sarah Harman about the Hedgerow Survey and ask her to contact Barry. Barry will contact Richard Cory-Wright about the Parish Council’s Tree Survey.

Stella and Chris felt that they have lots of information and are ready to move ahead with questions about Youth and Education.

Sue still needed to get together with Tim Hammond and Betty Stopp about Housing. It was also suggested that it might be useful to have a Developer/Builder on the Housing Group. Sue would also contact Suzanne Willis at ORCC about a Housing Needs Survey, to see if this could be conducted for Cholsey (or only for rural villages).

Finances
Steve has spoken to Ian Miles at the Parish Council, but unfortunately the fire at the Pavilion rather intervened. Steve has the funding application form from ORCC (£2,000), and will liaise with Ian about getting this in by the 3rd March deadline.

It was also confirmed that the Parish Council has agreed to £2,000 to fund the Parish Plan  (£1,000 before 31.3.06 and £1,000 by 31.3.07).

Next Steps
It was suggested that interest should be stimulated via The Forty magazine, by writing up the issues from the first Public Meeting in a ‘contentious’ way. There was some discussion about the possible advantages of having an Open Day like BcS did - maybe in April. Also, that Focus Groups with specific age-groups or interest groups might be a good way forward.

It was also suggested that an incentive to return the questionnaire would be useful - maybe a chance to win a meal at one of our Pubs or Restaurants?

‘Proportional Representation’

Chris felt very strongly, and it was generally agreed, that we would wish to have questionnaires completed by everyone in the village (all ages), not just one per household. As we do not know how many people are in each household, it was suggested that we deliver one paper copy per household, and ask people to copy them or to complete them ‘on-line’.

Next Meeting
The main topics for next time would be:
·    Publicity
·    How to involve / bring in the community
·    First thoughts for the questionnaire
·    Reports from the working groups on next steps
·    How to include the Parish Council’s referendum about The Pavilion

The next Meeting would be held on Thursday 26th January 2006 at 7.30 p.m. at the Free Church.
(David was thanked for the Free Church’s hospitality tonight)