East Woodhay Parish Plan Steering Group
Minutes of meeting held at St Martin’s School on Thursday 19th April 2007
Present: John Angle (Chairperson), Peter Brunsden, Rosemary Cahill, Brian Count (Treasurer), Chriss Fortier-Rolfe, Paul Hetherton, Paul Jacobs, Mike Robinson, & Jenny Veasey
Apologies: Alan Johnson
Chriss Fortier-Rolfe joined the Steering Committee and was introduced to other members of the committee.
Item 2: Minutes of Last Meeting
Item 3: Matters Arising
JA reported that he had displayed a copy of the meeting agenda on all five notice boards around the Parish. He has also distributed a copy of the certified minutes to all the people who wanted to be kept up to date on progress. RC suggested that the notice boards at both churches and the surgery be included in the list of sites and this was agreed.
A short progress report for publication in next month’s issue of Spectrum was emailed to Mary Gulliver. From now on, it is intended that a progress report be published each month.
As agreed at the last meeting JA approached the East Woodhay Parish Council and requested that they give us a cheque for £200 rather than pay for our meeting rooms. They agreed and JA has cancelled all our committee’s Village Hall bookings. St Martins School will be used instead.
Item 4: Focus groups update
It was agreed that as most, if not all, societies and clubs within the parish are listed in Spectrum, it should be used as the main source.
It was agreed that the focus groups should try to identify the top twelve questions to be put into the questionnaire and that this part of the exercise should be completed by August 2007.
JA issued a list of names, Email addresses and home telephone numbers of people, who have either expressed an interest in the Parish Plan at the inaugural meeting or given him their details. It was agreed that the list be split into four sections and four members contact people to encourage them to participate.
Action: CF to contact names starting with the letters A-F, BC&MR letters G-J, JV&RC letters K-R and PB&PJ letters S-Z.
The Recreational focus group are intending to meet with a group of local teenagers to canvass their views on what "recreation" is and what they might like to see in the parish. They recognize that there are already a fair number of clubs/activity groups in the area, but it may also be useful to try to improve the media by which these groups can let others know what they are doing.
The Environment group plans to have six meetings – three to discuss the issues and three to discuss the questions for the questionnaire.
The Community Services Group is to contact relevant organisations as listed in Spectrum, with a view to recruiting a few more members to the focus group and identifying specific issues for further exploration.
No one was present from the Transport group.
John Angle stated that following a discussion with Sarah Rogers, the Head Teacher of the Clere School he would be meeting with a group of children tomorrow. The purpose of the meeting is to explain the background to the Parish Plan, what we are doing and identify how they might be involved. There are grants available from the local network fund to aid such activities, as long as the money is used for the benefit of children and young people. A percentage is available to cover a reasonable proportion of questionnaire and final report costs. JA stated that he had received an application pack, which specified how the money may be used.
Item 6: Grants and Support
John Angle reported that he had received the cheques for £200 from the Parish Council and a further £750 from the Hampshire Strategic Partnership.
JA reported that he had tried a number of different organisations to try to obtain funding, but most were only prepared to consider funding the projects resulting from the Parish Plan. JA reported that he had received an application pack from the National Lottery Awards for All fund. JA agreed to approach the Gainsborough Stud to see if they were interested in funding our project.
It was proposed that if direct funding proved difficult we should approach a number of local businesses to specifically fund the final report and acknowledge their support in the document.
JA proposed that a small committee made up from three of the Steering Committee members complete the applications forms for additional funding. JV & RC agreed to help JA undertake this task.
Action: JA to approach Gainsborough Stud
JA, JV & RC to complete application forms
Item 7: Bank Account
BC reported that RBS had contacted him and requested that all three signatories present themselves to the Bank with proof of identity and residence. The account will then be opened and our cheques paid in.
Item 8: Spectrum Leaflet
The leaflet inviting people to participate in the parish plan went out with the April edition of Spectrum. To date responses have been very limited.
John Angle reported that he made contact with Simon Carter who looks after the East Woodhay website and that Simon had created a Parish Plan page today. To move items into the web page JA needs to acquire some software (Contribute @ £123). Currently this software is on 30 days free evaluation. JA will check whether the Parish Council have a spare copy of the software, which he could utilise for the duration of the project.
Action: JA to follow up on Website and software.
Item 10: Child Protection Policy
As the Steering Committee are asking children to be involved with our Parish Plan, we need to create a Child Protection Policy. Evidence of such a document is required when applying for some grants. JV agreed to look into this aspect.
Action: JV to look at Child Protection Policy
Item 11: Provisional Budget
JA distributed a copy of a provisional budget for the Parish Plan project. The provisional budget included a number of items associated with a cost, which will see no monies pass through the books, because we expect them to be completed at no cost to us. Examples include the production of the questionnaire by the Greenham Common Trust. Such activities can be used when applying for grants, which require matched funding.
Although the budget shows a significant shortfall, there is sufficient funding available to fund the key elements of the project through all the stages bar the printing of the final report.
Item 12: Provisional Timetable including Events
The plan is to complete the focus group investigations by August and then to work on the main questionnaire. In order to maximise exposure to our findings the Parish Plan should have stalls at both the Woolton Hill and St Martin’s fetes.
September was confirmed as the best prospective date for holding a “Launch Event” and MH agreed to propose some ideas as to the nature of the event and identify potential costs. As part of the exercise MH will join JA, RC & JV for their first “additional funding” meeting.
Action: PH to produce ideas and potential cost for “Launch Event”
Item 13: AOB
In JA’s absence, PB agreed to give a short progress update and distribute further copies of the Spectrum leaflet at the Parish Meeting next week
Item 14: Date of Next Meeting
The next meeting confirmed as Wednesday 9th May at St Martin’s School.