Bridport Area Neighbourhood Plan

February 2015 Minutes

Bridport Area Neighbourhood Plan Steering Group Meeting

Tuesday 3 February 2015 at Bridport Town Council (Mountfield)

Present: John Budden (Bridport), Phyllida Culpin (Allington), Nick Devlin (Allington), Richard Freer (Allington), Phillip Grey (Bridport), Ian Harvey (Bradpole), Andrew Leppard (Bridport), Jak Ford (Young Person).

In Attendance: Sal Robinson (Minutes Taker), Mathew (Matt) Dalton-Aram (Project Manager), and Tricia Dendle (Bradpole Parish Council)

Phyllida Culpin took the Chair in the absence of Wendy Thorogood.

Jak Ford was welcomed as a Steering Group member representing Young Persons in the Plan Area.

Apologies.

Minutes of previous meeting and any matters arising not covered on the Agenda.

The minutes were agreed and signed.
Agreed that an actions list should be appended to the minutes, to be filled in and circulated as actions are completed.
Agreed that minutes can be circulated to anyone who asks for them
Cllr Summers has been asked to assist in finding a Symondsbury representative for the Steering Group
Beth Hedges was unable to attend the meeting but wishes to be a Younger Person representative.
Agreed that other potential Steering Group members be approached and contact details given to Matt who will send them the application form.

Website, e-mails, social media (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.).

Phil reported that he has purchased the domain Vision-2030.co.uk at a very reasonable cost. This includes unlimited web space and e-mail addresses
ACTION - Phil to meet with Bridport Town Council re finances etc in his role as “Finance Officer”.
ACTION – Phil to send a questionnaire to all members re their IT set-up
Agreed that the website needs to be as interesting and dynamic as possible.
ACTION - a small group be set up to progress the website / e-mail, social media etc. including finding people outside the group to help.
ACTION – Steering Group photo to be taken at the next meeting
Agreed that regular updates must appear in the local press.

Media Release.

The draft was agreed in principle but needs an explanation of Neighbourhood Plans
ACTION – Matt to amend and bring to next meeting.

Code of Conduct and Register of Interests.

Agreed – see attached documents. Agreed that the competed / signed documents be held by Bridport Town Council and be available for inspection. ACTION - All members will sign the Code at the next meeting and complete individual Registers of Interests prior to the meeting. Interests which arise during a meeting must be declared and minuted and the member may be required to leave the room whilst an item is being discussed, depending on the nature of the interest.

Key Outcomes and Timeframes for Delivery.

Matt spoke briefly about the project plan, stressing that the timeframes are very ambitious.

Establishing Working Groups.

The following provisional groups were agreed and members volunteered to come up with the brief / scope / overview of each for the next meeting.

Communications (Website, Facebook, Twitter, etc) - Nick, Phil, Jak
Creative Industry - Matt, Phil
Transport - Ian
Education - John
Culture / Leisure - Andrew, Jak
Environment - Matt, Phyllida
Employment - Phil, Nick, John, Phyllida
Housing / Development - Andrew, Nick, Richard, Ian, John, Jak

Matt has a list of people interested in being involved with the Plan, who need to be matched to the groups and contacted after the next meeting.
Other people from the community will be asked to come forward via the press, website, and social media.

Engaging with WDDC, developers / landowners.

Matt reported that he is in discussion with WDDC regarding a presentation on the emerging Local Plan, possibly on 3 March. WDDC has a duty to support the development of Neighbourhood Plans.

Agreed that it will be useful to talk to developers and landowners when the relevant Working Groups are established.

Education Provision at Vearse Farm.

Agreed that the Steering Group not get involved at this point but that there is no objection to any members personally pursuing this matter with DCC / WDDC.

Next Meeting.

Agreed that the next 2 meeting will be on 17 February and 3 March, at 7:00 pm at Mountfield.
Agreed that from then on, as far as possible, meetings will be monthly on the 1^st Tuesday of the month, at a venue in each Parish / Town in turn.

Bridport Area Neighbourhood Plan Steering Group Meeting

Tuesday 17 February 2015 at Bridport Town Council (Mountfield)

Present: Wendy Thorogood – CHAIR (Bothenhampton & Walditch), John Budden (Bridport), Phyllida Culpin (Allington), Nick Devlin (Allington), Richard Freer (Allington), Phillip Grey (Bridport), Ian Harvey (Bradpole), Andrew Leppard (Bridport).

In Attendance: Sal Robinson (Minutes Taker), Mathew (Mat) Dalton-Aram (Project Manager), Bob Gillis (Bridport Town Clerk), Tricia Dendle (Bradpole Parish Council), Paul Bowditch (Allington PC).

1. Apologies. Jak Ford.

2. Matters Arising From the Minutes.

•All “working groups” have got together either in person or by e-mail.

•Photos for the website are outstanding – it was suggested that individuals supply their own photo as well as a group photo being taken.

3. Minutes of previous meeting.

 The minutes were agreed and signed.

4. Progress Updates

a) Website, e-mails, social media.

•Phil reported that the website is there and he has put up some information. Only 10 pages can be set up using the tools provided by the host, but further pages can be set up using web authoring software. ACTION – everyone to send feedback on the website so far to Phil

•ACTION – everyone to respond to Phil’s questionnaire so that e-mail addresses etc can be set up

•ACTION – once e-mail addresses have been set up then Facebook and Twitter can be set up

•ACTION – Phil needs someone to help him with social media

•ACTION – Mat will write some of the narrative for the website e.g. an explanation of what

Neighbourhood Planning is and what it can achieve

b) Revised Media Release

•This cannot be released until at least the website is “live”

c) Meeting with West Dorset District Council.

•Jan Farnan has agreed to come to the meeting on 3 March 2015. Mat is having a pre-meeting with her the week before

•The main topic appears to be “how does the Neighbourhood Plan fit with the Local Plan”

•Everyone to send their concerns / questions to Mat ASAP

d) Recommended New Steering Group Members

•AGREED that this be deferred till the next meeting in the hope that there will be a Symondsbury Parish representative by then, rather than filling all 12 places now. It is important to not have too large a Steering Group. People who are interested could be asked to join working groups rather than the Steering Group.

5. Recap Session.

•Mat recapped on the relationship between Neighbourhood Plan and local plans and the NPPF. It is important to work from the top down and not to get over involved with the Working Groups until the overall “holistic” view has been developed – what is the Plan “vision”, what is it to achieve, how is this going to be communicated to the community in such a way as to encourage community involvement in the working groups etc?

•AGREED that this should be clearer after the session with Jan Furman at the next meeting.

6. Next Steps.

•ACTION – everyone to think about the overall “vision” and send suggestions to all ASAP.

•ACTION – Mat to circulate the Local Plan “vision” statement to all

•ACTION – “working groups” to circulate what they have agreed so far regarding the scope of the groups, for discussion at the next meeting

•AGREED that a map of the area covered by the 5 parishes is needed – Bob thinks that Bridport town council has a suitable map. Also, Dorset Explorer online can be used. There is a need for maps showing information such as flood zones, AONB, defined development boundaries etc..

•AGREED that local community groups need to be identified and invited to be involved and that local informal “meeting” places need to be identified

•AGREED that the working groups cannot go out to the community until the media / communication strategy has been agreed and is in place

•AGREED that in the mean time Steering Group members can start research for their “working” group(s)

7. Code of Conduct and Register of Interests.

•The Code of Conduct was signed by all Steering Group members present 3 Steering Group members submitted their Register of Interests form.

8. Meetings with Developers / Landowners.

•Mat reported that he has been in contact with Hallam Land Management (promotor of the Vearse Farm proposal) who are looking at holding consultation events.

•ACTION – Mat to find out what this will involve and to ask if they would come to speak at a Steering Group meeting.

9. Any Other Business.

It was suggested that seminars be held in schools to involve younger people on an on-going basis.

10. Next Meeting.

•Agreed that the next 2 meetings will be on 3 and 17 March, at 7:00 pm at Mountfield.