Totnes Neighbourhood Plan – Coordinator Report, March 2015

Totnes Neighbourhood Plan

Coordinators Report – March 2015

Item / Activity / Documents/outputs
Communications / Met with Anna Lodge (ATMOS communications officer) who gave pro-bono support on communications for the Neighbourhood Plan.
I am drawing up a draft communications plan which I will refer to at the Steering Group meeting / Communications plan still under development
Bro-bono support from graphic designer Hele Oakley who gave me training in word-press which enabled me to set up a website / Basic website designed, available for comment
Draft leaflet produced for review by Steering Group / Draft leaflet
Task groups / I have been working on process, approaches and terms of reference for task groups with support from Chris Balch, Tatianna and Frances / Terms of reference and roles and responsibilities documents
I have been in communication with Helen Nathanson in order to set up the Town Team as task group for Culture/Heritage/Public Realm / Task Group Categories document – for discussion at SG
Students / Potential for Plymouth Planning Students to be involved with support from Chris Balch. He has suggested 2-3 students could be available for around 4-6 weeks around May/June.
The current suggestion is these students would support evidence gathering and analysis for task groups.
Task groups could draw up a brief of the support they need as one of their initial tasks.
Travel costs will need to be paid.
Meeting arranged with Ruth Potts, Schumacher to discuss potential involvement of Ecological Design Students.
Item / Activity / Documents
Community Engagement strategy / The community engagement strategy is still under development. After further meetings with Frances it would appear the ATMOS Ambassadors engagement approach and the initial neighbourhood planning engagement approach could appear to the public to be too similar. We are therefore exploring other options. I will talk more about this at our SG meeting.
I am currently in discussion with the following re community engagement:
I have met with Inez Ponte
Jeff Bishop (along with Paul)
Ruth Bentovin
/ Community Engagement strategy sent out with minutes and papers from last SG meeting – this does now need revising
Town Council support / I met with Ruth and Tatianna to give them a general update on my progress. They have been checking through documents and giving feedback (for example leaflet/website/task group documents) and making suggestions for key contacts
General project planning and budgets / This is still be developed but need finalised community strategy before this can be completed
Attendance at events/networking /
  • Dartington Neighbourhood Plan Community Engagement Day
  • Market Town Consultation – The Mansion
  • Transition Homes Consultation – Dartington Village Hall

Other meetings / Paul and I met with Graham Swiss to find out what support South Hams could give us. Graham is going to compile key documents that neighbourhood planning groups will need on the South Hams website that can be accessed by all South Hams NP groups.
On the advice of Chris Balch, we asked if South Hams could provide us with a GIS base so we can map data across the neighbourhood plan. The idea would be that as we gather evidence we could map it visually – we could map anything and everything from constraints, assets, sites, TPOS, conservation areas, development boundaries etc.
This would be a vital tool for task groups

Priorities for March/April

Priority / Goals
Task groups launch /
  • Task group papers and terms of reference are signed off by SG
  • Coordinator supports Task Group leads to recruit members and hold first meeting

Communications launch and awareness raising /
  • Steering Group sign off leaflet and website
  • Communications plan is completed and disseminated to Steering Group
  • Over one week (to be decided) Coordinator sends out press releases, articles, gives radio interviews, disseminates leaflets, emails groups
  • This activity will also help recruit members for task groups
  • Coordinator to attend some meetings of key community groups and give some presentations – other SG members are invited to do the same

Community Engagement strategy /
  • Community engagement plan is finalised and presented to the Steering Group

Project plan, budget, fundraising /
  • An overall project plan and budget is finalised to include above items and Coordinator starts fundraising.
  • Start drafting funding proposals go to Locality and Page Adams
  • Identify other funding streams

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