East Woodhay Parish Plan Steering Group

Minutes of meeting held at East Woodhay Village Hall on Wednesday 14^th March 2007

Present: John Angle (Chairperson), Rosemary Cahill, Brian Count (Treasurer), Paul Hetherton, Paul Jacobs, Mike Robinson & Jenny Veasey

Apologies: Peter Brunsden, Paul Hancock, Alan Johnson & Roger Sharpe

Item 1: Introduction of New Members.

No new members were present.

Item 2: Minutes of Last Meeting

These were accepted as a true record of the 14^th February meeting and were duly signed by the Chairman and Jenny Veasey.

Item 3: Matters Arising

John Angle has distributed a list of names, Email addresses and home telephone numbers to all members.

Item 4: Involvement of children & young people

Giv Thornton the Rural Community Development Officer for Community Action Hampshire gave a short presentation on how we might involve young people in our parish plan. Ideas included special events, walkabouts highlighting good and bad features together with safety concerns and the use of disposable cameras to create before and after photographs. Giv explained that grants were available to aid this type of youth-focused activity, while also providing a small contribution towards producing the parish plan.  She also introduced a “Parish Plan Toolkit”.

John Angle reported that, following a suggestion from Jenny Veasey, he had approached Sarah Rogers, the Head Teacher of the Clere School, to try to involve the young people of the village in our parish plan. She agreed to identify a group of people to participate.

Action:  John Angle to follow up.

Item 5: Focus groups update

Focus awaiting additional members before commencing their projects. See item 8.

Item 6: Grants and Support

John Angle reported that the Parish Council agreed a grant of £200 towards the project, although the money will remain in the Parish Council’s account to pay for the hire of the Village Hall. Hampshire Strategic Partnership has agreed a grant of £750, which is expected later this month.

John Angle reported that following a meeting with the Greenham Common Trust they agreed to offer assistance with our parish plan. This could include free black & white photocopying, free licence for use of analysis software and free design help when we are ready to produce our final report. Any such help could be valued and included in our applications for grants when they require matched funding.

John Angle reported that although we have not yet produced a formal estimate of total projected costs, it was likely to be in the low thousands of pounds. This is based on other parishes’ costs and consequently we need to identify further sources of funding.

Action:  John Angle to identify further potential funding.

Item 7: Bank Account

Brian Count advised the committee of the terms of the account. The committee then agreed that:

1. The Treasurer be authorised to open a bank account with The Royal Bank of Scotland

2.  The authorised signing authority to be the Chairman, Treasurer and Rosemary Cahill

3.  Any TWO signatures being sufficient for bank transactions.

Action: Brian Count to set up bank account.

Item 8: Spectrum Leaflet

Although the leaflet was available to go out on time, it failed to do so due to other timing factors. It will now go out with the April issue.

Item 9: East Woodhay website

In Alan Johnson’s absence, John Angle explained that the Parish Council has agreed that the Parish Plan Committee use the same website for publication of the Minutes and other material.

Action: John Angle to follow up.

Item 10: AOB

Jenny Veasey proposed that in order to save money, we should consider holding our meetings at St Martin’s School. The committee agreed that subject to the Parish Council agreeing to transfer any funds remaining from their grant for the use of the Village Hall into our account we should accept the offer.

It was agreed that in order to raise the profile of the project, the Steering Committee meeting agenda should be displayed on noticeboards around the Parish, and a resume of the minutes, along with contact details should be published in Spectrum.

Discussion was held regarding the possibility of holding a “Launch Event”, using Community Action Funding.  It was felt that September would be the most practical and effective time for this.

Action: John Angle to follow up with Parish Council and if appropriate cancel Village Hall bookings.

Item 11: Date of Next Meeting

As the next meeting fell during the Easter holiday week, it was agreed to move it to Thursday 19^th April and to hold it at St Martin’s School.