Singleton Parish
Neighbourhood Planning Steering Group
Minutes of a Meeting held at the Village Hall, Singleton
on 9 December 2014 at 7.15 pm
Present: – Mark Clifford, Doug Goth, David Kay, Jim Pawson, Kath Smith, Cllr Maxine Chew and the Parish Clerk, Verena Henderson, who took the Minutes.
1. Apologies were received from Chris Simpson and Cllrs Bailey, Gallagher and Smith.
Unfortunately Chris Simpson had not received the emails advising of the meeting. The Clerk has now amended his email address and hopefully this problem will not arise in the future.
2. Declarations of Interest
The Clerk had asked the advice of Ian Curtis, Head of Governance at Fylde Borough Council, about the correct procedure with regards to members of the Steering Group declaring an interest in any item, e.g. if a proposed area for development was in a particular member’s ownership. Mr Curtis advised that the principle would be to make sure that the Parish Council knows the interests that people have. If members of the Group are there because they have a particular interest, that would be okay as long as that is known and understood. What has to be remembered, however, is that the Group are there to act in the public interest, not their own. It was therefore decided to include this item in the Agenda so that any member with a business, personal or financial interest in an area under discussion, should declare it at the beginning of the meeting.
3. Minutes of Previous Meeting and any Matters Arising
The Minutes of the previous meeting, held on 20 November 2014 were agreed as a true record. As yet the Steering Group does not have a Chairperson and it was decided to postpone the election of the Chairperson until the next meeting when hopefully all members of the Steering Group will be there. The Minutes will then be signed. The position of Vice-Chair will be filled by a member of the Parish Council.
4.
Adoption of Terms of Reference
The Clerk had adapted a model Terms of Reference sent to her by Fiona Riley, Planning Policy Officer, at Fylde Borough Council. These were drafted and circulated and members would take these home to read through. Initial thoughts were that the opening paragraph should state what Neighbourhood Planning was all about. Also under what the Plan was seeking to do, the Clerk was asked to add “enhance the local economy”. Any further comments should be sent to the Clerk for addition or amendment.
5.
Moving Forward – Questions and Options
Fiona Riley had sent a list of questions all Steering Groups should ask themselves at the beginning of the Neighbourhood Planning process. Cllr Chew had drafted responses to these questions as a means of generating discussion.
The questions were: –
• What will your Plan deal with?
• What are your aims and objectives of the Plan?
• What is the planned period for your Plan – e.g. will it run to 2020, 2025, 2030?
• What is your vision/aspiration for how the Parish should be by 20XX?
• What are the key issues your Plan will/should address – what do you want your Plan to address?
• What does the evidence base tell you?
• Timescales/resources. Are you producing a “light” Plan which will deal with a few key issues or will your Plan be comprehensive and deal with all aspects? What does your time and resources permit?
• What does your Plan need to do which the Local Plan for the whole borough will not cover?
• What are your options for dealing with the issues identified?
It was most probable that we would go for a light touch Plan. As regards evidence base, we have the Parish Plan, Singleton’s rural housing study, the 2011 census date, the Singleton Conservation Area document and Fylde Council has produced evidence base for the whole borough. The Vision Contact document produced by the Singleton Trust was also mentioned as a source for local information to be considered.
These questions need a lot of thought and information is still needed from Fiona Riley as to the structure of the Neighbourhood Plan, timetables, policy examples and useful guides to best practice for producing the Plan. The Clerk will chase these up before the next meeting.
Without these important details, the Group felt it couldn’t really progress any further this evening. A few points to consider however –
• Local economy
• Expansion of local businesses
• Questionnaires to be hand delivered and collected from local residents
• Currently there is much conflict in the village, more so than at any other time
• Show positivity in the Plan.
• Development should be in keeping with character of village
• As regards timescales, more detail for the first 10 years and then less detail as you go on.
• The Trust have an on-going register of people wishing to live in Singleton
6. Any Other Business
The Clerk will contact members once she has received the required information from Fiona Riley.
7. Date and Time of next meeting
To be decided on receipt of required information, but to aim for the middle of January 2015. Tuesdays seem to be good for most people. Not Wednesdays.
As there was no further business, the meeting closed at 8.50pm.
Signed …………………………………………… Dated ………………………………………
Verena Henderson
Clerk to Singleton Parish Council
Tel: 01995 670455