Dartington Neighbourhood Plan - Steering Group

Meeting 28th October 2014

Red Room, Schumacher

Present: Fran Benatt, Frank Benatt, Ashton Chadwick, Amanda Bourne, Dominique Cowell, Jo Talling, Peggy Prout, Pam Gorman, Jacqi Hodgson, Rachel Williams (minutes), Donald Young, Richard Orr.

Apologies: AdamDadeby, Isaac Livingstone, Jon Rae, SusieDunster

1. Ashton Chadwick who chaired the meeting, welcomed everyone and introduced and welcomed Donald Young to the meeting, representing the Planning / Environmental Expertise Sector task group.

2. Minutes of last meeting , action points and matters arising. The minutes were accepted as a true record of the last NPSG meeting (29.9.14), except for the additional points:

Steering Group:

Community Sector: reverts to Amanda Bourne / JojoRamsden (shared role)

Reappointed: Richard Orr was welcomed back as a Member of the Steering Group

Agreed: Elaine Hopkins (Vice Chair of Governors for Dartington Primary School) be co-opted onto the Steering Group under the Public Sector and as the Dartington Primary school representative

3. Appointment of Coordinator. Jacqi Hodgson outlined the reasons that she is unable to take up the paid role of Coordinator. She had met with SHDC solicitor and a Planning officer after being offered the post to discuss the likelihood of any decisions regarding the Neighbourhood Plan to be taken by Council members from which she could be excluded if she had a pecuniary interest. While no such decisions had been identified she had decided that it would not be appropriate to take any such risk with the Dartington Neighbourhood Plan and was therefore not going to accept the paid post. She is however willing to continue in the voluntary role. The paid role has been offered and accepted by Kate Wilson who had applied and been interviewed for the Coordinator post.

4. Update on SHDC Our Plan and proposed development sites in Dartington Chad reported that the consultation deadline has been extended from 3rd to the 31st October and thanked Vaughan Lindsay for his efforts in enabling this to happen. There have been no further developments on Our Plan. DHT has withdrawn their amber sites. Discussion still ensues around removing the green sites. There is no guarantee they will be withdrawn at this stage. DHT are awaiting written confirmation from SHDC that if they withdraw the green sites it would not prejudice their chances of putting them back in again in the future.

Richard Orr expressed concern about individuals ‘jumping in’ on fact finding missions (DBDUC and Frank Benatt/Foxhole).Richard reasoned that the Neighbourhood Plan should be the basis for starting these discussions. If this protocol is not used the process could become dissipated.Ashton Chadwick responded that the manner in which the Neighbourhood Plan protocols are developed is a matter for the Steering Group and once the newly appointed administrator was in place this would become clearer.Frank Benattagreed with Richard Orr that any approach to DHT should be made with the sponsorship of the Steering Group. It was agreed that Frank Bennatt and Dom Cowellwould meet with Celia Atherton on a 1:1 basis re Foxhole. Celia has agreed to meet with the Housing task group in a fortnight’s time. The task group will then report back to Steering Group.

JT reiterated that DHT are keen to be part of the NP process. DHT are not the only landowners who have promoted land in the village. Once SHDC have come forward with housing numbers for Dartingtonit will enable the NP to discuss where potential the sites could be allocated. Foxhole has been part of a detailed 5 year consultation. It is a significant building and Vaughan Lindsay is anxious that SHDC do not see it as a windfall site. Ashton Chadwick reiterated that the SG did not want to be confrontational and that the same process applies to DHT as to others.

5. Feedback from Housing Task Group meeting 13.10.14

Jacqi reported that this had been a constructive meeting. Five soap boxes were created – each soap box had 3 minutes of air time. Topics for individual soap boxes were (1) brownfield/greenfield sites (2) constraints to developments (3) different kinds of housing (4) what do we want to protect and (5) what kind of numbers and what kind of housing does the community want. An OS map of the Parish was blown up into 3 sections with 5 different colour codes for where developments could go. Participants had been asked to indicate where they considered housing could go and ideas around numbers that might be acceptable. They had used stickers of different sites and possible housing numbers and colours to indicate from Red –totally unacceptable, orange might be acceptable but large constraints, yellow possible but not preferable, light green could work, dark green favoured sites. Small round stickers were used for 1-5 houses, larger square stickers for 10 houses. The results indicated that there was quite a bit of unanimity amongst those present. Outcomes will be brought to the meeting this Saturday.

6. Feedback on 106 monies meeting and Open Space task group Jacqi reported thata meeting had taken place with Ross Kennerley, SHDC Officer on 20th October to discuss possible funding and plans for community and recreational facilities in Dartington, the minutes of which are appended to the task group reports. Possible options for Meadowbrook were discussed. It was agreed to audit all open play space and sport facilities in Dartington. Jacqui Warne from Bidwell Brook had attended the meeting and expressed an enthusiasm to bring children from the school to the Meadowbrook pool if it were covered, rather than travelling to the pool inTotnes The dates at which monies available from the Sawmills and Webbers Yard developments was discussed. These funds can be used in match funding bids. To be able to draw down the 106 monies you do have to meet the objectives of a charity. Mike Jones of Earthwrightshas offered to lend expertise. Peggy Prout endorsed the community’s wish for open spaces of play throughout the village and not necessarily in one centralised area.

Open Space Task Group. Jo Talling agreed to look up the figure available to upgrade cycle paths. £75,000 has been made available to upgrade the ShinnersBidge Bus Stop. It was agreed that applications for drawing down the funds should be put in as soon as possible. These applications to be made to the Parish Council. It was agreed that a position on the Steering group should be made available to a representative of the Open Space task group. Peggy Prout will contact Jenny Paine to ask if Brian Whittackeror Jenny herself could alternate attendance at SG meetings.

7. Feedback from Joint Task Groups meeting 25.10.14.

  • Housing: Oliver has offered to lead this at a previous SG. Dom has expressed willingness to support this.
  • Transport Infrastructure:Peter Ward to lead. It was agreed to link in with Totnes on the Move. Jo Talling advised that Simon Cronk is willing to join this group.
  • Open Space: John Callaway will be the spokesperson for this group and his report to the Steering Group will be appended with these minutes.
  • Food Production: (this could be widened into Land use). At present there are only a few people on this group but it is looking to grow in the future. Jo Talling advised that Harriet Bell is willing to join this group.
  • Renewable Energy: No one had signed up for this group. It can be developed later.
  • Environmental / Biodiversity: Pam Gorman reported that Pippa is willing to lead this group and that she (Pam) would be the spokesperson. Jo Talling advised that John Channon is happy to join this group.
  • Footpaths, Cyclepaths (linking in with open space) and Environment: Frank to lead. It was reported that there is some concern about access to woodlands. Jacqi suggested that the group could also look at ways they could assist bio-diversity for e.g. putting in Devon banks. Jo Talling confirmed that she would like to join this group.
  • Economics: (no SG leader identified). Zack, Jay Tomptand Jon Dawson have expressed an interest in being on this group. KEVICC to fall within this group.
  • Community Consultation – (already established and v.active) Amanda Bourne reported that nobody had sat at this table so it had been agreed to combine it with the Community Charter task group. Jacqi explained that the community charter task group is about attracting community values to come forward. It is a statement of community intent and connectivity within the community which will make Our Plan more robust. For e.g an interest could be addressing the Arts in the community. IsobelCarlisle has agreed to lead this task group. Rachel Williams has put her name forward to join this group.
  • Open Space/Play task and Community Facilities – John Callaway to Lead. A well attended group that will look at the options for the 106 monies (as discussed) as part of their work

Agreed that each task group will be asked to submit monthly reports to the Steering Group.

The Village Hall has been booked next Saturday from 10-1 for task group meetings. Individuals need to be co-opted onto groups and those who are the liaison with Steering Group identified.

Agreed that Kate Wilson should contact all those who haven’t been to a Steering Group meeting for a while and encourage them to come along to the next meeting.

Agreed to ask Bridget Green from SHDC to selected meetings on a consultation basis.

8. Neighbourhood Plan materials on Parish Council website - updateAdam has put a lot of time into updating the website and extra pages have been added. Unfortunately the old website still comes up when googled. Jacqi encouraged everyone to go into the site as many times as possible to raise it up the ‘ladder’. Rachel suggested that once the new meta-tags have been confirmed by google the positioning of the website should also improve.

John Whittaker is experiencing problems with keeping Our Dartington to size. Distribution frequency could be increased in the future to bi-monthly. All agreed it would be beneficial for the publication to have specific pages relating to the Neighbourhood Plan. Deadline for material is 10th November for the December edition.

There was discussion around finding a site where the community could go to ‘experience’ the Neighbourhood Plan, similar to a surgery.

Erection of banners on the grass opposite Shinners Bridge was also discussed.

9. Plans for a Community Visioning Event & QuestionnaireThe questionnaire could be launched at the community visioning event. Peggy will ask if a special edition of Our Dartington could be produced in January which is just about the questionnaire. Each task group will be asked to come up with 3/4questions which haven’t been answered before. It was agreed that the ideal place to complete a questionnaire was face to face – either at the community visioning event or door to door. The project plan talks about a party in January. Chad is tempted to go with this suggestion. Agreed. The date for the party was set for January 24th. Four questions from each task groups to be received before Christmas. Celia has offered the services of Rip to assist with the questionnaire. It should also be sent to all the schools and the 6th form at KEVICC.

Any other Business:

  • A joint meeting with Totnes and HarbetonNeighbourhood Plan groups to explore how we are all progressing was discussed. Agreed that they would be invited to join Dartington’s for this joint meetingasourDecember Steering Group meeting.
  • Ashton Chadwick advised that Chairing of the Steering group would be alternated between himself and Anna Lunk.
  • Frank asked about the transparency of the Steering Group and whether it was open to the public. Chad responded that anyone can come to the Steering Group meetings but only members of the group can vote.
  • Protocol for sharing information will be assessed. Possibly use dropbox to share files. When writing to large groups for database protection reasons email addresses should be bcc’d, however smaller working and task groups can use cc between themselves.

14. Next SG meeting: 24th November 6pm.

15. Close of Meeting: The meeting closed at 7.49