Notes from Corfe Mullen Neighbourhood Plan meeting 17th Oct 2022
Present:
- Alison Eardley (consultant) – acting Chair
- Jane Wilson
- Lee Hardy
- Heather Birchenough
Apologies:
- Gail Pape
- Marie Dando
- Sarah Edge
- Cllr Duncan Sowry-House
- Cllr Peter Neil
- Pam and Ian Battrick
- Josh Mitchell
Membership
Sarah Williams has emailed the group to alert them to the fact that she will be standing back for the time being for personal reasons. The group send best wishes and hope to re-engage with Sarah in the future.
No response has received from JM or PB/IB about taking part in the Steering Group and it is therefore assumed that these volunteers would no longer wish to partake in the project at this time.
Town Council representation – At the last meeting, concern was raised about the lack of representation from local councillors, with one standing back completely and another stepping away temporarily due to current commitments. This was raised with the Town Clerk and it is understood that this will be discussed at the Full Council Meeting on 25th October. The Steering Group volunteers would like to ensure there is full commitment from the TC before committing further time to the project and AE agreed to discuss this with the Town Clerk. This includes representation from councillors at the meetings and involvement in delivering the project, as well as general support from the Town Council in terms of communications and local engagement.
The following activities will be commenced depending on the outcome of the Full Council meeting.
Vision and objectives
Draft objectives have been established for every theme except Community Facilities, which LH and SE are to liaise on.
Local engagement and evidence gathering
Discussion about how to encourage more local engagement:
Community Survey – November to February
Whilst the Community Survey has successfully drawn in a great number of responses, certain demographics are under-represented, notably children, teenagers and younger adults.
A spreadsheet has been set up with the contact details for schools, local playgroups and other organisations around the parish. The SG agreed that each would be specifically targeted to complete the Community Survey, to provide a fuller set of responses.
LH has contacted the middle school, who are keen to get involved in the project. LH to contact again to discuss the nature of this, taking guidance on how to engage the children (and their parents) from the teaching staff.
SE to lead on engagement with the playgroups and nurseries, taking the survey and using this to gain input.
AE to draft a simple survey for local businesses to complete. AE to contact local estate agents to gain feedback on commercial activity in the parish.
JW to attend a future walk with the local walking group, to raise awareness and hand out surveys.
Potential to have a presence at the Christmas Lights switch on – JW to investigate how to organise.
Aims:
- to complete additional surveys, to fill in demographic gaps;
- to gather contact details
- to work towards hosting community workshop(s) in February to focus on the key themes.
- To engage local businesses
To achieve this:
- The survey will be reopened. AE to add additional question at the end to gather contact details (a GDPR notice will be included)
- Surveys will be printed to hand out to groups
- Update to the poster to be issued in public locations
- AE to seek deadlines for The Link magazine to get a new article
- Cllr Mattocks to be asked to post on Facebook and issues an update and renewed link on Facebook.
- All to consider if there are other ‘specialist’ groups locally related to the themes. E.g. heritage, cycling, walking, wildlife, etc.
Community Workshop(s) – February/March
Information gathered from the Community Survey will be used to inform one or more Community Workshops, to investigate the themes in more detail. Precise details to be confirmed but will likely include:
- Residents invited to take part in 1.5 hour workshop to explore the draft vision and objectives and the emerging NDP themes in more detail. There would be an initial group activity on the Vision and Objectives, to hone these and gain agreement.
- This will be followed by a round robin exercise where a series of tables will be set up, one dedicated to each theme. Each table will have a large map of the Parish and a series of questions for groups to consider. Groups will be able to mark on the map or use post-it notes/ paper to make comments in response to the questions. Attendees will be divided into groups and will visit each table in turn to discuss the questions. As groups progress, hey will be able to see what the previous group has collated and can then add to this.
- The output will be a series of detailed comments on the themes which, in parallel with hard evidence gathered for each topic, will assist the SG in considering how each objective will be addressed (either through a planning policy or an associated action).
Design Guidance – January to June
In parallel with the activities above, the SG has applied to Locality for Technical Support to prepare detailed locally-specific design guidance for the parish. We are currently awaiting confirmation of the support, but it is anticipated that this would commence in January. There will be scope to incorporate this work into the Community Workshop(s).
The Design Guidance would underpin a policy in the Plan and would be used to guide planning applications in the parish.
Local Housing Needs Assessment – January to April
Technical Support to provide evidence on local housing need and affordability has also been sought from Locality. This would underpin any housing needs policy in the neighbourhood plan.
For this (and the Design Codes) there will be a meeting with the Technical Consultants to agree the scope and approach. Dates will be agree with the SG.
Locality grant application
We are still awaiting confirmation on the grant from Locality.
Dorset Biodiversity Record Centre (DBRC)
Once the Locality funding is agreed, this will enable us to commission a report from the DBRC on habitats and biodiversity. This will help to inform the Environmental theme policies.
Summary of Actions
- AE to discuss TC backing with the Town Clerk.
- LH and SE to draft Community Facilities objectives
- AE to amend Community Survey and reissue
- LH to arrange printing of surveys/ posters
- AE to ask Cllr Mattocks to upload information to Facebook and website
- AE to prepare a spec for people to use when approaching local groups
- AE to prepare brief business survey
- AE to speak to local agents.
- SE to approach local playgroups and nurseries to encourage parents/ guardians to complete the survey
- IH to speak to the schools about engagement (supported by others in the SG).
- AE to get The Link deadlines
- AE to liaise with TC on grant and technical support.
- JW to investigate free venues (e.g. library)
Date of next meeting: tbc
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