Notes of the Exploratory Meeting regarding the formation of Neighbourhood Panel/Area for East Thurrock

Venue; Sure Start Children’s Centre, Copland Rd S-L-H

Date of meeting; 8th January 2013

Started 19.15 Finished 20.50.

17 people attended the meeting with apologies from a further 3 residents.

Among those attending were local residents from Stanford le Hope & Corringham, local businesses, a representative from DP World, and a local Councillor.

The meeting started with a explanation of the Neighbourhood Plan procedure and what it could and could not include.

A)To establish a representative panel of a minimum of 21 people are needed, to include representatives from all areas within the proposed Neighbourhood Area, from businesses within the area, local Councillors, educational establishments and a cross section of the age, gender and cultural mix of the residents.

B)The agreement and adoption of an area boundary that the Neighbourhood Plan should encompass.

C)The formulation of a Neighbourhood Plan which could include localised plans for as many aspects of a LDF as the local community wished to involve themselves in. It was explained that any Neighbourhood Plan must be in broad agreement with both the LDF, central government policy and EU Planning Laws. A plan could not be used to stop development that had been evidenced as being required in an area but it could influence the location of any development, the design and the delivery of services.

D)A neighbourhood Plan would need to be developed with the involvement of the wider community by carrying out consultations, holding public events and focus group meetings with interested parties.

E)Once a Neighbourhood Plan had be developed it would then go to an Independent Inspector so that the soundness and compliance with all relevant policies and law could be confirmed. The Inspector is able to suggest minor changes that would make the plan acceptable.

F)Once the Neighbourhood Plan has been passed as sound by the Inspector Thurrock Council will call a referendum of all the residents living within the Plan Area, should more than 50% of those voting in the referendum be in favour of the Plan it will then be adopted. This will mean that any planning applications or strategic decisions relating to the Neighbourhood Plan Area must be incompliance with the plan.

It was explained that the first course of action if residents wished to proceed with this idea would be to bring together the 21 people to form the Panel and at the same time establish the Area boundary. The composition of the Panel and the proposed boundary would then have to be presented to Thurrock Council for them to confirm the validity of the Neighbourhood Panel and the suitability of the Boundary. Once this had been agreed we could then move onto stage 2 the formulation of a Neighbourhood Plan.

The meeting was then opened to the floor and various questions around the proposal were raised the vast majority were answered by the planning consultant from DP World, Derek Parker from Speak and Terry Piccolo. Questions included clarification on the amount of weight that would be given to any plan, what benefits would be gained, was there any funding available for consultation and the written production of the Plan, what could be included in the plan, how long would it take and how long it would last for.

At the end of this Q&A session the proposed boundary Area to be considered suitable for the plan was discussed, in general those in attendance were happy for the Area to included both Stanford le Hope & Corringham with the finite boundary between Corringham & Fobbing to be determined. Discussions also took place regarding whether to include the new port and logistic park within the boundary. It was agreed that we could seek advice on this from Thurrock Council as to whether the area would loose any money due from CIL payments if we did not include it and whether we could still represent the employment generated within the port & logistic park within the Neighbourhood Plan.

The question was raised as to what assistance we would receive from Thurrock Council, it was explained that they are obliged to give advice and assist in the formulation of the plan but at present other than making public buildings available for public meetings and consultation events they had no obligation to supply any funding although this may well change.

It was agreed that people would go away and have a think about whether they would be interested in becoming a panel member if enough other people would become involved.

Terry Piccolo agreed to email out those that attended with website links to information on Neighbourhood Planning, and also requesting a response as to whether or not they would be interested in taking the concept forward.

Depending on the response 2 further large public meetings would be arranged to enlist the help of other residents, businesses and schools etc.