Bridport Area Neighbourhood Plan Steering Group Meeting
 
15 November 2016 from 6pm at Bridport Town Council Offices (Mountfield)

Present: Phyllida Culpin - Chair (Allington), Glenn Crawford (Bridport), Stephen Spear (Bradpole), Caroline Meredith (Chamber of Commerce), Richard Nicholls (BLAP), Bob Driscoll (Symondsbury), Katy Graham (Project Manager).

Also In Attendance: Sal Robinson, Tricia Dendle (Bradpole PC), Anna Lovell (POPP), Raja Jarrah (Climate Change), Gavin Fryer (Land Use), and Richard Toft (Climate Change).

Phyllida reminded everyone of the Register of Interests.

Phyllida said that Dominic Knorpel’s funeral had been earlier that afternoon and that she had sent a condolence card to the family on behalf of the Neighbourhood Plan Steering Group.

1. Apologies. Andrew Leppard (Bridport), Richard Freer (Allington).

2. Minutes of last meeting.

The minutes were AGREED and signed.

3. Matters arising from the minutes.

• Completed templates are outstanding for Community Facilities and Land Use (in progress).

   

• The tabards have been printed and are ready for use.

   

• Youth Outreach.

  • All 6 events have taken place.
  • Youth Council workshop (primary school age) – 10 attendees
  • 4 x Colfox Lower School House assemblies - approx 400 pupils
  • Workshop with 6th Form – approx 40 pupils
• Feedback summary
  • on the whole their priorities match those of the Neighbourhood Plan
  • the see Bridport as becoming multicultural and multilingual
  • the 6th formers have common interests with the Steering Group which is reassuring
• Details of the Colfox presentations can be found at http://www.vision-2030.co.uk/documents/

4. Programme plan and budget.

• The updated income and expenditure report was circulated.

• Symondsbury PC have given a grant of £500, Allington and Bothenhampton & Walditch parishes intend to do likewise. (N.B. Bradpole has already granted £500 and Bridport TC is putting in £20,000)
• £50 spent on printing on 8 tabards.

  Potential expenditure – no new items.

   

5. Working Group Updates.

Land Use.

• Jo Witherden is meeting working Group members re the new sites which have come forward + the ones which have come forward from the WDDC Call for Land.

• Katy is identifying the land owners.

• The following WDDC / DCC officers have been invited to attend the visits/comment on the sites: Jan Farnan - Planning, Ian Madgwick - DCC Highways, Kate Williams - Conservation Officer, Sarah Barber - Landscape Officer. Richard Brown, AONB, is also attending.

• It is hoped to make visits to all sites, over a half day period, in the week beginning 28 November.

• There are no Land Use working Group notes on the website – Katy to ask Andrew to provide a brief summary of the Calls for Land and the number of sites put forward from each Call.

   

Transport.

• The Transport Working Group plans are on the Agenda of the Western Area Transport Group (WATAG) meeting on 24 November.

• The Community Bus feasibility brief will also be presented at WATAG.

Climate Change.

• Nothing new to report.

Environment.

• Concern was expressed regarding footpaths across the Vearse Farm area – are they still in existence? It was suggested that the Ramblers Association be contacted.

Economy.

• Nothing new to report.

Housing.

• Glenn gave a report on behalf of Housing Group (which currently has no formal representative)
• a small group is scheduled to meet officers of WDWP in Dorchester on 23 November to discuss the draft Housing Needs Assessment. WDWP have been reviewing the document and have invited the Working Group members to meet with them to discuss their findings.

Community Facilities.

• Nothing new to report.

Mapping for Green Spaces, Allotments and Community Facilities.

• Sal reported that there have been problems with the mapping software which are being investigated by the software developers.

• She hopes to complete the mapping in time for the next meeting.

   

6. Consultation Planning and Next Steps.

• Phyllida, Caroline and Andrew met to consider what happens next.

• Draft Neighbourhood Plan document => Joint Council / Parishes => much wider public audience => refinement of plan => Joint Council / Parishes => Examiner => Referendum

• Family drop-in event / surgery with display of photos of old / new, possibly short films, recordings of people talking about such things as transport, housing.

• followed by a Public Meeting or Meetings

• leaflet every house at some point – this needs to be put in the budget – needs to stress that “this is about US”

• draft document available online, in public places

• small displays in pubs, supermarkets, library, Leisure Centre, Medical Centre, Bridport Community Hospital

• an ongoing publicity campaign in the press, radio, TV etc

• how do we reach the WHOLE community?

• we need to reach people outside the plan boundary who may have an interest – they can’t vote in the Referendum but they can contribute to the Plan

• Katy to provide an updated Project Plan for the next meeting.

• The Writing Group is looking at intentions before drafting policies and will need to refer back to the Working Groups.

• Katy reported that she is having difficulty collating responses from the last questionnaire as they are too qualitative. This needs to be borne in mind for future questionnaires. Tricia said she would help with this.

   

7. Public Participation / Any Other Business.

Dorset National Park. This will probably take at least 6 years to come to fruition.

Swanwick Neighbourhood Plan rejected by its makers due to changes made by the Local Authority after Examination. This shows how important it is to get the wording right before Examination.

St Michael’s Trading Estate. Glenn said he will circulate the U-Tube link to the “Made in Bridport” film.

Economic Ways of Building. Gavin asked if this is being considered by the Housing Working Group – yes it is.

Financial Viability Assessment model used by WDDC. Richard Toft asked if we need to request WDDC to bring this up to date and to include the “Merton Rule”.

8. Next meeting.

The next Steering Group meeting will be on Tuesday 29 November, 6 pm at Mountfield.