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

Present: Geraldine Kelly, Sue Jeffs, David Beaumont, Steve Stocks, Barrie Charles, Barry Sheldon, Alan Dawe, Betty Stopp, Pam Kendall, Leslie Kendall, Lisa McKue
Apologies for absence from Stella Mitchell & Mick Woodley.

 Minutes of the previous Meeting on 27th February 2006 & matters arising
Steve said that he would be ‘printing’ forms not copying them.
Barrie confirmed that we would only be putting the Minutes on the website, not the agenda as well.
Barrie has drafted a flier for the Forty, which had been circulated, and had also circulated population and age profiles.
Pam had circulated a revised Transport Survey tonight by e-mail.
Geraldine confirmed that English Partnerships may be able to come on 8/9th April and will bring a Fairmile display. Jody Catellanos is the contact and she will be able to be there for some of the time.
Geraldine has tried to speak to Lynne Stone from the Day Centre Committee about older people’s issues.
During the consultations so far, the question about play facilities has not worked very well. It was agreed to change this to ‘the quality of the play facilities’.
Geraldine agreed to write to the Chairs of all the village clubs and societies, both to raise awareness about the Plan and invite them to the consultation event, and to get any views about issues, concerns or interest from those groups.
Barrie is re-vamping the website to make it more user-friendly, and this should go live on 17th March. Geraldine is the ‘web editor’ in terms of content, and Barrie acts as the technical conduit.
Geraldine confirmed that we have received the £2,000 grant from ORCC and this is now lodged with the Parish Clerk.

 Update on public consultations
200 forms are out in circulation / many of which have already been returned and awaiting inputting. Barrie has circulated results so far by e-mail.
Geraldine and Lisa have been doing Winterbrook, the School and Pre-School. Response at Winterbrook has been very mixed. Dave Evans to be asked to collate and analyse these forms (GK).
Stella is still working with the young people to do consultations from the school buses.
Pam & Leslie volunteered to do Tesco’s again, at a different time. Steve and David will do outside KP Stores/Papist Way next week too.
It was agreed that the main purpose of the consultations is to get more people involved, as much as to influence the main questionnaire.

At the Consultation Event on Sunday 9th April, Geraldine explained that St. Mary’s Church were hoping that people would come to the Laurence Hall at about 11 a.m. for a brief blessing, and also to be part of the consultation. David explained that Free Church members may well come at the same time. Everyone agreed that this would be good, but we would obviously need to make sure that we had enough person-power to cope with a large number of people at the same time. 

Updates on Reports
Reports had been emailed round for Leisure and Community, and some amendments would be made. A full list of all groups was available via The Forty/Welcome Pack.
It was agreed that it might be useful to have a consistent style for the reports/information for the displays and the website.
Sue circulated the notes from the Housing Group, including some useful housing needs information from SODC. She also explained that ORCC (Suzanne Willers) will be able to conduct an independent Housing Needs Survey for us at the same time as the main questionnaire. (Copy circulated). The results of this can then be used to influence both the amount of affordable housing to be planned for in Cholsey and also to influence access to affordable housing for Cholsey people. Usually, a ‘rural exception site’ would be sought for this, but in our case, Suzanne has asked SODC to consider whether some affordable housing on the Fairmile site might be allocated to local people on the Housing Register.
It was confirmed that Celsea Place is not being marketed at the same time as Fairmile, but will be part of a later ‘batch’ for English Partnerships.
It was agreed that Sue should include the numbers of people on the Housing Register with a Cholsey address in the stats for the display. Sue would email Barrie her report for the website.

Consultation Event
Geraldine confirmed that the Laurence Hall is booked, and that the fee is £108 for the 2 days. She has paid a returnable deposit of £25 herself.
4 display boards have been booked for borrowing from SODC, to be delivered and collected from the hall. It was felt that we would need more than this, with our 7 themes as well as introductory and background information (Steve and Geraldine). Everyone to give some thought to where we might borrow some from.
It was agreed that each theme would have a questions section, with post-its/stickers. Each group will do its own display, and reclaim any expenses.
Barry has not had any success in obtaining a large map of the Parish from SODC for people to put flags in for where they live. It was agreed to ask people their gender, age and post-code via Sign-in sheets instead.
Tea, coffee, soft drinks and biscuits would be needed for about 200 people. Geraldine would ask someone on 1000 Plus Committee with a Makro card to get this for us, also tea towels.
David was thanked for his excellent suggestions for Quiz questions. An adult and children’s prize would be needed, and a ballot box (and the answers to the questions!). It was agreed to discuss this in more detail next time.
Geraldine, Lisa and friends were willing to blow up and give out balloons during the week before the event, to raise awareness.
Barrie would draft a Press release for the Wallingford Herald for that week

Next Meeting
This would be on 23rd March 2006 at 7.30 p.m. at the Free Church.

 David was thanked again for his hospitality.