Village Plan Committee Meeting	Present:	Apologies:
Thursday 7th August 2003   The Croft, Longparish	Jeremy Barber Christine Beresford Alix Bremridge Cheryl Dowler Mary Jo Darrah Fiona Gould Andrea Hulme Mike Johnson David Wright	Paula Vize Nona Harrison Gloria Goodliffe

Who's Who?                                                                                  

Each committee member gave a brief introduction to who they were, skills and the reasons they wanted to help with the village plan.   Copies of these to be given to Fiona to put into the public domain, and to share with the rest of the group.   For those with concerns over e-mail addresses being put on the web, please let Fiona know and she will withhold this information.

Update from last meeting

• The budget requirements had been completed as agreed at the last meeting.   The grant application has been sent off.   The Countryside Agency have contacted Fiona and seemed happy with the direction we are taking so far.   We should hear the results of the grant application in a week or so.
• The school exhibition went well with a high number of non resident visitors.
• The Hill and Valley update has happened.
• Web site links are now on the Longparish site i.e. to the Countryside Agency and other villages with good parish plan sites.

TVBC planning consultation

Jeremy and Mike gave an update on the TVBC's local plan.   Mike commented that we currently have four committee members [Mike, Mary Jo, Gloria and Jeremy] with experience via the Parish Council, on how planning can impact on the village.   Planning in Test Valley is governed by the TVBC local plan which is revised about every 10 years.   The policy for villages like ours has, for many years been, one of 'infilling' (one house between two others) in certain areas on main streets designated by a brown line on the map.   Parish Councils have felt in the past that they have very little influence in setting the policy.

The only exception possible under the present plan is for social housing.   The Parish Council has carried out surveys which indicate need.   But any such development is dependant upon land being made available at agricultural prices and no land has been made available despite thorough research.   There is a similar situation in other villages and, in common with some other villages, the Parish Council would like to see the policy relaxed to enable backland development in villages provided the villages concerned wanted it.

The TVBC plan is being revised.   The draft may be seen on the here. Jeremy also has hard copy (about the size of two phone books) and a copy on CD which anyone interested can borrow. Under the draft plan the whole of Longparish apart from North Acre is designated as 'countryside' and the only permitted development is infilling.   In practice this means that there is little or no space for development as infill plots have already been developed.   North Acre is shown as an area with scope for development but, in practice, is already fully developed.

The PC consider that the revised TVBC plan should keep open the possibility of mixed development in villages to include social and commercial housing, to make the prospect more appealing to local landowners, and hopefully to include a community facility.   The Parish Council submitted comments seeking more flexibility (see Appendix A here).   A discussion paper was sent back which indicates that if certain criteria were met variations to the policy would be acceptable if Village Plans showed them to be desirable.   This willingness by TVBC to be flexible and engage in discussion is very welcome.   Mary Jo commented that it is also consistent with recent developments in national planning policy.   The PC responded with a letter listing the criteria they would want to work to.  

This committee can make its views known to TVBC and possibly influence future planning policy.   This enables us to focus on the issues we need to highlight in the Parish Plan a) housing needs, b) community facilities c) other facilities (infra structure; shop, pubs, shops etc).

In order to ‘keep the door open' for the future this committee agreed to send a letter to TVBC thanking them for offering us the opportunity to comment on their review, supporting a mixed development in order to maintain a sustainable community.   David to draft letter and circulate to group in order to be sent out end of next week.   (See copy)

Consultation process

We looked at a presentation ( see here) compiled by Fiona and Christine of targets and techniques relevant to the consultation process.   We will need to stylise the questionnaire to get the maximum number of responses from the survey.   It was suggested we seek expert help to find out how many we would need to receive to make the response representative of the village.   We can gain an idea of the issues that the village are concerned about from the two exhibitions.   Jeremy to consult a friend who is a statistician.   So far the only area not adequately covered in our exhibition results is North Acre, and could show different needs and problems to other areas of the village.   North Acre exhibition to be held on Saturday 20 th September from 2 to 6pm.   Notice to be put in Hill and Valley and leaflet drop the estate.

Actions:

• Fiona to fine tune the population data and give to Jeremy
• Everyone to give Fiona their details, Fiona to distribute.
• David to draft TVBC letter
• Fiona to arrange Hill and Valley notice re: North Acre exhibition.
• All to note that Cheryl's new e-mail address is CherylLongparish@aol.com 

Next meeting:

Thursday 4 th September at 20.00 at The Orchards, Forton.