MINUTES OF A MEETING OF THE CHARMOUTH NEIGHBOURHOOD PLAN STEERING GROUP HELD AT THE ELMS, CHARMOUTH, ON 16th OCTOBER 2017 AT 7.00PM
Present: Carole Girling (Chair), Sarah Edwards (Secretary), Andy Bateman, David Clifford, Jan Gale, Teresa Noel, Jo Seaman, Tim Sheward, Eden Thomson, Tanya Trenholm
Apologies: Ros Cole, Phil Davidson, Chris Lakeman Fraser, Beth Gillan, Steve Gillan, Simon Leech, Peter Noel, Adrian Ragbourne.
CG welcomed new Group member Tim Sheward (TS), who will be moving to Charmouth in the near future. A retired chartered town planner, TS was heavily involved in the neighbourhood plan where he previously lived.
Minutes of the last meeting and Matters Arising
The minutes were agreed.
The open forum was a success, with 56 people attending. The presentation by CG, AB and RC was well received and was followed by questions from the floor. SL needs to carry out review of existing design guidance for housing but has been unavailable.
Update on qualitative analysis: The basic work has been done, but the team doing the work now need to meet and pull it all together, so that the basis of policies will become clear. An executive summary for each of the reports can then be produced. JS will liaise with AB, ET and RC.
Budget Update
AB reported that the application for approximately £6000 from the locality grant budget resulted in an award of approximately £2800. No grant was made to cover the cost of the housing needs assessment, as this can be done by Locality’s in-house experts (AECOMIvan Tennant). (See attached for details of the grant).
Housing Needs Analysis Information is being provided towards the housing needs assessment. CG will forward to the consultant information after checking new property builds in Charmouth since 2011. The consultant, Ivan Tennant, will produce a report within the next few weeks on the need for housing in Charmouth. He has sent Fortnam, Smith & Banwell an assessment form for completion.
Right Homes in the Right Places is a Government consultation document sent to all councils. It includes a section on neighbourhood plans, with any responses to be filed by 9th November. CG/AB will provide comments to the Parish Council.
Fact-Finding Survey: Jo Witherden has provided a draft for this survey, which may need amendment to meet our requirements. CG, TT and SE will meet to discuss this and draw up a list of service providers to contact. SE will circulate a list of providers for amendment.
Members CG stated that the Group is now quite small, and that more members are needed to cover all the work that has to be done. Anyone who does not wish to join fulltime but who can help with discrete pieces of work will be very welcome.
Action Plan It was agreed that we need to formulate a view of the contents of Charmouth NHP (i.e. scope) sooner rather than later.
The next open forum which will cover the results of the qualitative analysis could also include the basic scope of the Plan and possibly also the housing survey.
Any Other Business
JG is filing correspondence and evidence of what is being done.
ET stated that the government plan is for no sea defences for Charmouth. However Michael Gove has said that tourism is a factor and Phil Tritton has produced a paper on this.
AB asked about the feedback forms from the initial street survey, stating that although they had been used as the basis of the village survey, they had never been formally quantified. Members were asked to bring any they had to the next meeting. CG agreed to bring the comments together in a report.
TN mentioned, for information only, the planning issues that have arisen with regard to Riverway.
JS has paperwork from the work done on the survey that needs to be stored: the basement at The Elms is available for this.
Date of next meeting
The date of the next meeting is Thursday 16th November, 7-8.30pm, venue to be announced. (The venue is now confirmed as the Library)
The meeting ended at 9.10pm.
AB Andrew Bateman; DC David Clifford; RC Ros Cole; PD Phil Davidson; SE Sarah Edwards; CF Chris Fraser; BG Beth Gillan; SG Steve Gillan; CG Carole Girling; SL Simon Leech; TN Teresa Noel; PN Peter Noel; PO Paul Oatway; AR Adrian Ragbourne; JS Jo Seaman, TS Tim Sheward, ET Eden Thomson; TT Tanya Trenholm;