6th November Meeting 2017

Little Waldingfield Village Plan Steering group meeting 6/11/2017

Meeting held at Maltings Farm with thanks to Richard Furlonger.

Barbara Campbell (BC), Richard Furlonger (RF), Jennie Jordan (JJ) and guest Ian Poole (IP) in person

Tim Sheppard (TS) joined the meeting by Skype

Apologies from Chris White

Minutes

After official introductions to Ian Poole, the meeting started.

We discussed the merits of choosing ‘Smart Survey' over ‘Survey Monkey'.

IP suggested that we trial a short version to test answering and formatting etc.

TS proposed choosing Smart Survey - all agreed.

TS said wording for Postcard will be ready by end of week. Hopefully it will be printed and sent out 18th November

A long discussion about the Questionnaire followed.

IP had annotated a hard copy of the questionnaire with his suggestions. This was given to BC.

Q.1 Agreed to remove ‘need less' from housing question

Q.2 Include ‘sheltered Housing' Remove ‘Public Housing'

Q.4 Word ‘Should' missing

IP suggested that we find out number of people on housing register waiting list from Babergh District Council (BDC)

Q.8 Remove question

Q.9 Amend to reflect use

IP commented that Traffic and Transport seem to be top 2 issues in most villages

BC commented that someone had not understood ‘Biodiversity'.

Agreed to change to Wildlife and Natural Environment

Q.12 Leave as is!

Q.17 Add ‘Village' to WWW and add IP address

Q.21 Add question to find out how many bedrooms

IP suggested that we add a comment about needing volunteers but as we have plenty of offers we decided to leave this.

Need to change the data protection statement to protect anonymity.

There then followed a discussion about the village's representation to BDC. The hot topic at the public meeting was housing and the categorisation of Hamlet status rather than Hinterland Village.

Whilst the Parish Council (PC) will make representation about the village status they will not indicate a preference as to site suitability. They will highlight the benefit of 1 designated site.

BC said that Andy Sheppard has chased the Parish clerk on getting their representation in before 11th November.

IP said that he had supported Lawshall with their response to BDC. They stated that it is difficult to decide on a suitable site when the percentage number of houses required is still unknown. They have said if they knew the percentage then they can proceed with their decision making.

He said that BDC will work with the village and not undermine. They will try to respect the views and wishes of the local community.

TS said that when he met with BDC they recommended sharing information and collating data. This will help when we are in a position to undertake analysis.

As the finalisation of the Joint Local Plan may be delayed our neighbourhood plan should develop in parallel.

IP - said we are in a strong position. The Local Plan will include a settlement plan and the added value of site appraisals etc.

TS - Our critical friend at BDC Clare Dawson mentioned that they will be commissioning Landscape Assessments to assist their plan. LW won't be part of this commissioning.

The percentage of additional houses is likely to be 5% minimum.

With a strong framework in Local Plan this could evidence against large scale development in the village.

Our draft project plan will be shared with BDC as it develops.

The Questionnaire should go out on 25th November with a 2 week response time.

This was followed by a discussion on agreeing timings for printing with Lavenham Press. It is hoped that the final version will go to them on 13/11.

BC to contact Lavenham Press to get agreed timeline and revised costs (our quantities have changed)

RF said that Lynne Faulk is ready to help up-load the on-line survey.

We hope to finish phases 1 and 2 of the Places4People programme by the end of our current funding round (March) and to proceed with phases 3+4 when and if we are successful with an additional funding application.

TS requested IP to proceed with the work.

IP commented that this is an ideal time to start Landscape Assessment as the leaves are now off the trees.

IP said that he may ask Ray Keeley (retired landscape architect from Hartest) to assist with this work.

Next steps:

We had a discussion about the topics and format of workshops.

IP suggested ‘Housing' as a topic when we have the Questionnaire survey analysis - this will enable us to look at building options and related housing issues.

We could agree the criteria for choosing sites and then use this criteria to identify suitable sites.

‘Environmental issues' could be another topic perhaps coupled with ‘Transport'

Once the character appraisal is completed several views might be identified and then the village could prioritise and vote on their preferences.

All information gathered can be used for informing the PC and Steering Group future plans and funding priorities.

IP will only be required to attend key meetings.

Dates and agendas will be shared in advance and minutes shared afterwards. We will liaise at all times.

IP will be able to share ideas and plans from other villages involved in similar processes.

IP will attend when we are nearer to completing our plan and also at Workshops. He is unable to attend on a Saturday until after mid-January.

Date of next meeting - 17/11/2017

JJ gave her apologies in advance