Present:
- Alison Eardley (consultant) – acting Chair
- Jane Wilson
- Lee Hardy
- Heather Birchenough
- Sarah Edge
- Sarah Williams
Apologies:
- Gail Pape
- Marie Dando
- Cllr David Mattocks
- Cllr Duncan Sowry-House
- Cllr Peter Neil
- Pam and Ian Battrick
- Josh Mitchell
Membership
Two new members were welcomed to the group. Sarah E and Sarah W are both local residents, who attended the Open Day and keen to input into the neighbourhood plan project.
Prior to this meeting, Cllr David Mattocks emailed the group to say that he is stepping back due to other pressures. He is happy to continue to manage the social media, however, so messages can be sent to him for the website/ online.
Cllr Peter Neil also contacted the group to note that he is stepping back temporarily to focus on some current housing issues in the parish. He is very keen to stay involved, however, in particular to ensure that work on sustainability in the parish is enshrined within the emerging CMNP.
In the recent update to the Town Council, a request was issued for additional councillor support to assist in ensuring that the CMNP process is fully integrated with council business.
Communications
Some concern raised about communications within the group with some emails not being responded to, so uncertainty as to whether they had arrived. All to try and acknowledge emails where possible.
AE agreed to set up a shared Dropbox for the group. This is free for everyone to use and link to be issued shortly. If anyone has any issues accessing, please speak to AE. All to add documents to the dropbox that are relevant. Please try not to delete items or edit items that you have not posted.
For those who would like to add their CMNP emails to Outlook (or equivalent), please seek advice from DM.
Neighbourhood Planning update
In light of the new members present, AE gave a summary of what is involved in neighbourhood planning. New members are encouraged to have a look in the neighbourhood planning folder in the dropbox. Also, have a look online here: Guide to Neighbourhood Planning. Finally, it might be worthwhile dipping into some existing neighbourhood plans, just to see what they look like.
Vision and Objectives
The draft vision is:
By 2042 Corfe Mullen will be a thriving and safe community, retaining its rural character and conserving its rich environmental and heritage. Development will be tailored to benefit the village and future generations
GP has prepared flowcharts showing how the objectives (by topic area) will flow from the vision. There are five topic areas, which will effectively form the structure of the Plan:
- Getting Around
- Environment and Green Spaces
- Local Economy
- Housing, Design and Heritage
- Community Facilities
Three of the five groups have proposed draft objectives for their areas (see dropbox). We are still awaiting draft objectives for the Housing theme and the Community Facilities theme.
Objectives are best considered in light of the comments received so far from the local engagement. A copy of the latest summaries of the engagement can be found in the dropbox.
SE has agreed to have a go at the Community Facilities Objectives.
All will take ownership of the Housing objectives (AE to propose some ideas in dropbox).
Engaging local people
Whilst the Open Day and the Community Survey have been successful at bringing in responses about the local area, there is a need to support this with additional engagement.
Engagement should be undertaken both by demographic (e.g. ensuring we have enabled those from different age groups etc. to take part) and also by interest area. This latter will become more important as we start to work on the individual (yet overlapping) themes.
SW offered to assist in meeting local groups to talk about the CMNP and get general feedback (and possible volunteers too).
Agreed that it would be helpful to create a spreadsheet detailing:
- Demographics – by age, who should we be engaging and how best to reach them. We could also look at the geography of the parish (based on the feedback from the Open Day, where certain streets were under-represented, combined with the survey feedback) to make sure we have a good geographic spread of responses.
- Theme – Identifying who we might specifically target to assist us as we start considering the themes and how we might deliver the objectives.
AE to put a starter for ten spreadsheet together for all to fill in and then we need to agree how and who to approach each. We can use the survey as a ‘way in’, but those working on the different themes might have specific questions they would like to start exploring.
In between and for the next meeting, we can begin setting out the engagement plan in practice.
The Link – August article has been submitted.
AE to speak to Duncan about using his space for CMNP updates to keep costs down.
Theme discussions
There was some general discussions on some of the themes:
Getting Around: SE is involved in a local campaign which seeks to reduce the speed limit notably along Waterloo Road. There is a Facebook group running for this, which we should be utilising, particularly for this theme. Note that the NDP is not the tool for reducing speed limits, but there may be policies we can include to support this work. Ways to reduce speed include creative use of planters, road painting etc. Also the 20s Plenty scheme may be worth investigating. Faversham in Kent noted as a model for this.
Noted that there are no safe cycle routes in the parish. Something the NDP might consider exploring is highlighting where the key facilities are on a map, along with existing housing and proposed housing sites, and exploring the ‘key’ or ‘primary’ movement routes between the two, which should be maintained and improved (and better connected / extended) to enable more active travel.
Community Facilities: Include the Youth Club leader on the spreadsheet and approach to discuss how best to get younger people in the parish involved. SE expressed an interest in getting involved in this group. She has links with Lockyers, so would be happy to approach in due course – linking in with LH, who recently met the headteacher.
Housing, heritage, design: Discussion focussed on the lack of (truly) affordable housing locally. Also whether design could explore the ability to expand a house over the lifespan of the ownership (although may erode number of smaller homes?). This theme was considered to be of paramount importance, and it was agreed that the whole SG would be involved in it. AE mentioned that there is free (to the TC) Technical Support available from Locality (the national body funded by Govt to oversee the NDP programme) and two of the packages would be good for us right now:
- The Local Housing Needs Assessment – this will provide a detailed report about what sort of housing is needed within the parish – e.g. type, size, tenure, affordability. It will help to provide evidence to justify any housing policies we might wish to include in the CMNP.
- Design Guide for Corfe Mullen – this will be a report setting out how any new development should be designed within the parish – the idea is to identify local characteristics (e.g. layout, greenery, height, scale, density, materials, colours, architectural features, sustainable design etc.) that we wish to ensure is incorporated into any future build.
AE agreed to pursue these two packages.
Environment – SW expressed an interest in joining this Topic Group.
Grants / Technical Support
On this subject, we have not heard back on the grant yet. AE to speak to Locality to find out what is going on.
Town Council Update
Required – AE to draft.
Matters for next agenda
Objectives feedback
Agree in-person meetings around the parish to raise awareness, buy-in to the vision and objectives, to start gathering information for the themes and new volunteers.
Summary of Actions
- Check if those members of the SG who have not responded of late are wishing to continue in the group – Gail/ Jane/ Heather?
- Request additional local councillor volunteers to the group – AE to speak to CH (Town Clerk) for an update on this.
- Speak to DM if problems getting to your emails.
- AE to set up a shared Dropbox for the group
- All to add any documents to the dropbox that they think are relevant
- SE to review survey findings and suggest some draft objectives for the Community Facilities theme.
- AE to propose draft objectives for housing.
- AE to put together engagement spreadsheet and ALL to fill in.
- SE to speak to the Youth Leader and liaise with LH on schools.
- AE to chase Locality re the grant/ technical support.
- AE to draft TC update.
- AE to set up Zoom details for meeting on the 17 October.
Date of next meeting:
Monday 17 October, 10am at Jane’s house (Jane to provide address details). AE to Zoom in.
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