STEERING GROUP
MINUTES
Of the meeting held on Tuesday 10th December 2013
at the Village Hall, Boston Spa, at 7.30pm
1. Present: Geoff Shaw (Chair), David Thomson, Keith Jackson, Jill Jackson, Brian Charlton, Jeff Newton.
Note Taker: Vivienne Skinner
2. Apologies for Absence: Chris Newsome, Mark Yeadon, Sandy Goodall, Will Sparling
3. Minutes and Matters Arising: The minutes of the meeting held on 12th November were approved.
· Referring to Agenda item 6 at the November meeting, Keith Jackson reported that the paper he is working on about future influences on the community will include demographics and working trends (working from home etc.); and trends in shopping centres (moving towards being social areas). Keith has been approached by someone highly qualified to help with the statistical information.
4. Resident Engagement Report (Chris Newsome)
· Unfortunately Chris was not available to present his paper. He had circulated an update to the Group and the completed paper will be presented to the meeting in January.
· Chris has outlined ideas to utilise the shop window with various displays and Geoff will discuss these further with him.
· There was a discussion about the continuing concerns with the need to utilise the use of Social Media to promote the village and to engage with the community. There is the recognition of the need for a Community Website; however, there remains a lack of expertise within the group to take this forward. The Parish Council are also looking at the wider use of Social Media and the debate continues.
5. Report on NP Workshops 4th & 5th December led by Mike Dando (Geoff Shaw)
· The workshops had been very useful in identifying and examining the objectives and issues that will form the policies in the NP.
· The next course of action is to refine and complete the Issue Grids and to circulate them around all the Topic Groups for comments as many of the objectives are shared. This will be a key item for discussion at the January SG meeting with the aim of agreeing the overall topics for the policies to be fed into the NP.
· The Parish Council will be invited to the January SG meeting so that they can learn of the objectives feeding into the policies.
· A workshop will be held with Mike Dando and his team on Wednesday 15th January starting at 6.00pm to discuss Policies and Actions with the Community & Wellbeing Group; at 7.30pm all the TG Heads will meet with Mike to determine the Policies & Actions to be incorporated into the NP.
· A further workshop will be held on Wednesday 29th January to consider Policy Writing. It will start at 7.00pm and close at 10.00pm. Geoff will talk to Mike to discuss whether Topic Group members should be included in the workshop
6. Insert for the Boston Spa Parish Council Annual Newsletter (Chris Newsome)
· All TG’s to send their contributions for the insert to Geoff by the end of January. Geoff will work with Chris to ensure the insert is ready to meet the end of February deadline.
7. Neighbourhood Plan Training Camp, York 23rd – 25th March 2014 (Geoff Shaw)
· Sandy Goodall is proposing to attend.
8. Topic Group Updates
i) Housing and Development (Sandy Goodall) – No report available
ii) Protection of buildings, Sites and Views (Paul Hunt) – No report available
iii) Community and Wellbeing (Brian Charlton)
· The group has been working on identifying planning and non planning issues as well as finalising its objectives to feed into policies.
iv) Environment and Infrastructure (Jill Jackson)
· The group will be reviewing their objectives against the vision, the work will be finalised before 14th January.
v) Transport and getting about (Jeff Newton)
· The Group has met with Clifford NPG to discuss improving bus routes particularly into York.
· Work is also ongoing to look at improving the paths and cycle tracks along the A659.
· It was also suggested that the group links in with Thorp Arch & Walton to discuss linking in with paths and tracks.
vi) Business and Employment (Keith Jackson)
· A visit to Poynton, Cheshire is proposed to attend a presentation and to see how the town has successfully developed their shared space, and increased footfall to traders. The visit is scheduled for the end of February and the Parish Council will also be invited to attend.
· There was some discussion about potential access to Section 106 funding from the proposed Thorp Arch Estate development to fund improvements in Boston Spa. David Thomson reminded the group that the Section 106 funds would not be available to the surrounding area.
vii) Communications (Chris Newsome) – No report available
9. Finance update – None to report.
10. Any Other Business
· David Thomson reminded the group that new topics should not be put forward for the NP that had not been raised in the questionnaires or at the gazebo events.
· The Constitution of the Group requires members to declare any interests that may be perceived as creating a conflict of interest with the aims, objectives or decisions of the SG. A form will be produced and issued to members for any interests to be declared. Any such interests will be recorded by the Chairperson and will be publicly available.
· The Parish Council has received notification that Miller Homes are appealing against the non determination of the outline application to develop the Green Lane/Grove Road site. Leeds CC are required to determine applications within a 14 week period and failed to do so.
Date of next meeting – Tuesday 14th January 2014 at 7.30pm in the Village Hall. Agenda items to Geoff Shaw by 7th January 2014.
Meeting closed at 21.30hrs.
Page 1 of 3