Minutes of a meeting of the Steering Group held at 7 Old School Lane, Brockham on Tuesday 29th November 2005 at 8.00pm

Present: Lisa Marshall-Bailey Chair
Bob Pritchard Treasurer
Hilary Budd Brockham Parish Council
Nick Caddick Brockham Green Village Society

1 APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE

Paul Ritchie

2 MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETING

Apart from minor amendments to item 7.2 for Planned Events the minutes of the meeting held on 8th November 2005 were accepted. An amended version is circulated with this minute.

3 OPEN DAY

3.1 Presentation of prizes

NC had sent a letter and email request to Helyn Clack and her PA at Surrey County Council to ask if she would attend the prize giving and photo shoot. To date he had received no response.

It was agreed that other possible candidates should be identified should Helyn not be available, as was increasingly the likelihood. HB suggested Nicholas Owen, the TV presenter, who apparently lives in the village and she would ask Celia Plumb if she has his details. HB also suggested a Mr Maltby. NC would contact Kathy O’Leary and Peter Shakeshaft.

3.2 Posters

NC had created an A4 poster for the Open Day and it had been accepted by the Group. HB suggested that the green was a little too bright. NC would arrange for a number of photocopies to be made – laminated and circulated around the village.

3.3 Catering

HB had arranged for a number of helpers for catering at the Open Day. Jane Holmes (half an hour only), Claire Jordan, Heidi Cox, Viv Cresswell, Janet Greenhorn and Diane Prout had all volunteered.

LMB would source tea, coffee, squash, plastic cups, paper napkins and mince pies and NC would source the wine and spices.

Plates from the Church Hall would be used. The Teas on the Green signs will be placed out and posters for the Open Day put over the top of them.

3.4 Personal invitations

NC would email invitations to the stakeholders in the Village for whom he has addresses. He will also invite residents from the BGVS subscriber database. Those not on email will be sent an invitation by post.

BP agreed to contact Diane Cooper who lives at Bishop’s Cottages to ensure that they too are invited and included in the Open Day.

NC raised the question about residents at Boxhill Farm Barns and it was agreed that invitations would be hand delivered to these homes.

4 BROCKHAM SCHOOL CHRISTMAS FAIR

PR and LMB will attend the Christmas Fair and collect the stands from NC. NC suggested that he could give them a key to his garage so they could collect and return the display at their convenience.

LMB suggested that the original paintings produced by the children be laminated and put on the display.

NC indicated that it would be helpful to mark on the Brockham map on the display panel, the Conservation Area and the reserve housing site.

5 FEEDBACK FROM MVDC MEETING

LMB and NC had today attended a meeting with Caroline Bosdet, Head of Policy and Partnerships and Kathy O’Leary, Principal Planning Policy Officer of Mole Valley District Council.

Notes from the meeting are circulated with this minute.

The meeting was exceptionally useful and many questions had been answered which will give the Parish Plan an opportunity to make significant impact in the early stages of the Action Plan.

BP raised the issue of control and hoped that MVDC were not going to be too controlling in what was expected or what we could recommend.

NC assured BP that MVDC were in fact not at all controlling, merely suggesting that they could help. It is up to the Steering Group to decide what they want to pursue or indeed recommend.

6 FUNDING

6.1 DEFRA

LMB reported to the Steering group that the SCA had met and our application had been accepted, after the money identified for voluntary work had been excluded. LMB added that she had received a phone call from the SCA to say that a grant cheque should be received by the Parish Council by the end of the week.

6.2 Awards for All

LMB and HB were working on a response for Awards for All, National Lottery Funding. The Steering Group had requested £3,000, but we have to show that the Parish is a ‘needy’ Parish. This has as much to do with facilities and services as it does with deprivation. Carol Suche at SCA will ‘vet’ the application but leaves on holiday on 8 December, therefore the deadline for completion by LMB and HB is 6 December.

BP recommended that LMB contact Nicola Barrett, daughter of Andrew Barrett, who has had considerable experience in arranging funding and applying for grants.

If BPP is not eligible for funding through Awards for All, Carol Suche has provided details of a Funding Fair which is held in March which the Steering Group could attend.

7 PARISH COUNCIL MEETING

The Parish Council meeting is to be held on 5 December. Kathy O’Leary and Caroline Bosdet will be attending. It is requested that all Steering Group members attend if possible. With reference to the last minutes – there has been some concern over the response of some members of the Parish Council and the Steering Group needs to be clear what is expected of them.

The Steering Group need the Parish Council to;
a) be responsive to reasonable requests, such as the completion of forms, comments on the questionnaire etc
b) provide support in the way of information that could prove helpful in the preparation of the Parish Plan
c) subscribe to meeting the action requirements of the Parish Plan within proposed deadlines

It was noted that the Parish Council had provided the Parish Plan with £100 at the last meeting, from this years budget. This had not been itemised in the budget therefore it was an additional cost to the Council. The Steering Group feel that it is right to ask the Parish Council what has been allocated for the plan in next year’s budget.

LMB agreed to draft a memo to the Parish Council to this effect.

8 STAKEHOLDER LETTERS

Thirty four stakeholder and twenty nine display letters had been sent out since the beginning of November. The response has been variable and LMB agreed to update the spreadsheet for contacts who have responded.

9 VOLUNTEERS

A number of volunteers had been identified and NC requested that the spreadsheet that had been circulated should be updated by individuals and returned to him for compiling.

NC agreed to contact Sarah Battley who lives in Middle Green and who had expressed interest in helping with Disability issues.

10 SUGGESTION BOXES

It was agreed that contact should be made with Tanners Meadow surgery for the siting of suggestion boxes and perhaps for the return of questionnaires.

LMB agreed to contact the Practice Manager to arrange an exploratory meeting.

11 QUESTIONNAIRE REPORT

NC suggested that the Steering Group now starts to think about how to form groups post Christmas to start work on the questionnaire.

LMB had sought advice from her contacts at Surrey Wildlife Trust on the best presentation of questionnaires and would circulate the information.

NC agreed to send the link to InfoPoll to BP.

12 AGREEMENT OF CONSTITUTION

The Constitution was agreed by all members.

13 ANY OTHER BUSINESS

To date we have received a total of 376 comments from the Parish Plan Display and simple analysis demonstrates the following distribution of responses: -

Housing 14%
Transport 23%
Services 8%
Green Spaces 17%
Childcare 13%
Village Halls 3%
Local Business 7%
Building 4%
Environment 11%

13.1 Planned events

The Group has been successful in booking the Parish Plan display into local events and meetings of local groups. At the meeting the following bookings were confirmed: -

Thursday 01/12/05 5pm – 8pm Kenwood Court LMB, NC
Saturday 03/12/05 2pm – 5pm Brockham School Fayre LMB & PR
Monday 05/12/05 2.30pm Monday Cafe LMB & NC
Monday 05/12/05 5pm – 6pm Beavers PR
Monday 05/12/05 6.30pm – 8pm Cubs PR
Monday 05/12/05 8pm – 10pm Parish Council Group
Wednesday 07/12/05 8pm – 10pm Brockham Bonfire AGM LMB, PR
Sunday 11/12/05 2.30pm – 5pm Church Hall Group
Wednesday 14/12/05 10am Brockham Nursery HB & NC

14 DATE OF NEXT MEETING

The next meeting of the Group will be held at 8.00pm on Tuesday 20 December 2005 at 7 Old School Lane, Brockham. Vicky Adam will hopefully be attending, as she is moving to work on Children’s Centres as part of the Government’s Sure Start scheme.

Use our feedback form to make your comments on the key issues that Brockham should address now and in the future.

Brockham Parish Plan Steering Group

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