Thursday 6 November 2003  

Present:		Apologies
Fiona Gould (chair)	Nona Harrison	Mike Johnson
Christine Beresford	Jenny Jolliffe	Richard Maloney
Jeremy Barber	Mary Jo Darrah
Andrea Hulme	Cheryl Dowler
Alix Bremridge	Paula Vize
Gloria Goodliffe	David Wright

Unfortunately Greg Alexander, Community Resource Manager for Test Valley Community Services was unable to attend the meeting.

Actions from last meeting:

•  Agenda for 6 Nov meeting was publicised at least 3 days prior to meeting, and published on website and village notice boards.

 

•  Jeremy Barber advised that the Longparish Plan Steering Group is now officially a sub-committee of the Parish Council.

Treasurer's Report:

The Steering Group has received £4,600 from Countryside Agency and £1,250 from Parish Council, of which £30 was spent on North Acre exhibition costs, which broke down into a £20 donation for the use of the tent, and £10 to the winner of the draw. Feedback from Youth Consultation Group:

The Youth consultation sub-group had met twice since the last Steering Group meeting and minutes of meeting on 27 October had been circulated.

Christine Beresford summarised.   The sub-group is composed of Nona Harrison, Andrea Hulme, Corinne Bowman and Christine Beresford.   Paula Vize offered to join the sub-group if additional help is needed.     The consultation covers three age groups: Under Fives, Primary School and 12-20 year olds.

Nona Harrison and Christine Beresford launched the Primary School consultation at school assembly on 5 Nov.   Work will be carried out in class and results will be available around 19 Nov.  

No decision reached at present as to how to take forward Under Fives and 12-20 year olds but a meeting will take place with parents of Under Fives on behalf of their children on 29 Nov.    A further meeting of the Youth group is scheduled for 20 Nov.

The Steering Group thanked the Youth sub-group for the excellent progress they had made since the last Steering Group meeting.

Feedback from Adult consultation:

The Adult consultation sub-group met on 14 October and Mary Jo Darrah had provided and circulated minutes of the meeting, upon which comment was invited, and one response had been received.

Jeremy Barber summarised that the sub-group had defined a number of categories of interest groups within the village.   Additionally it was suggested that two further groups be added to the list: an 18-35 year old group, and an ‘establishment' group.   The latter would include people with current involvement in community activities (such as, but not exclusively, the Parish Council, the School Governors, FOLS, the Village Hall committee, Longparish Parish Plan Steering Group, and Landowners).

Cheryl Dowler and Mary Jo Darrah provided an article for Hill and Valley, inviting volunteers to take part in the groups.   At 6 Nov. no responses had been received from volunteers.

Fiona Gould provided guidelines on the objectives and process for focus groups, which the meeting found very helpful. Fiona and Christine Beresford confirmed they are willing to facilitate the majority of focus groups; David Wright also offered to be a facilitator.   It was felt that external facilitators would be advisable for the focus group at which members of the Steering Group participated as it would be difficult to combine both input and facilitation.

Action: It was agreed that equipment and supplies would be obtained in readiness for the start of the focus groups, some items of which had recently been donated to the Steering Group. Fiona/Christine to suggest a shopping list to Jeremy.

It was agreed that the focus groups should be held in neutral venues. The Cricketers and The Plough have confirmed that groups could meet in the pubs, by arrangement, between November and January.   Alternative venues to be considered are the School hall or the Village hall.

Fiona Gould provided a summary of core issues from the exhibitions, a conclusion of conclusions summary.

Action:   The group was asked to verify, or advise otherwise, that the issues summary does fairly represent the topics raised at exhibitions.

A further meeting of the Adult group is scheduled for Sunday 16 Nov at 17.00, at 2 Forton, courtesy of Jeremy Barber.   This meeting will seek to define the topics to take forward into focus groups and how to mesh the topics with the interest groups.

Action: Jeremy Barber asked all committee members to suggest names of invitees for each category of interest group.

Broadband Action Group

The Broadband sub-committee met on 4 Nov and had provided minutes of meeting.   The present number of broadband registrations has risen to 73, of which 45 are from home-workers.

David Wright summarised.   A visit had taken place to Burbage to view a broadband installation, that has been successfully set up by Country Broadband and which worked extremely well.   Further research will be carried out with other subscribers in Burbage.

Research had been undertaken into alternative ISPs but in effect there appear to be no credible alternative wireless broadband suppliers to Country Broadband.   It was felt that Satellite would not provide a satisfactory service.  

A further sub-committee meeting has been called for 19 Nov, and broadband copy for Hill & Valley should be submitted by 20 November. A public meeting has provisionally been planned for 2 nd December.   The Steering group congratulated the Broadband group on the depth of work they had been undertaking.

Any Other Business:

•  Jeremy Barber reminded that updated plans for School building project would be presented on Saturday 8 Nov by the Architect and the Governors and FOLS, recommending group members attend if possible.

•  Jeremy Barber confirmed that two additional notice boards had been erected in bus shelters and the third would be displayed shortly.

•  Fiona Gould has received an invitation for a representative of Longparish Parish Plan to attend the inaugural meeting of Barton Stacey's village plan consultation, and will attend personally.

•  Fiona Gould conveyed a message from Vitacress that they will provide £3,000 per annum, to be split 3-ways, for the villages of St Mary Bourne, Hurstbourne Priors and Longparish to use for community purposes.   Vitacress is setting up a Trust to administer the donation and is looking for a Longparish representative to be a Trustee.   It is anticipated that three meetings will be held per year. Alix Bremridge volunteered to be Longparish's trustee representative.

Action: Fiona Gould will inform Rob Gibbs of Vitacress.

•  Paula Vize advised a change to her email address.   In future Paula may be contacted at simonvize@aol.com .

Date of next meeting:

The next plenary Steering Group meeting will be on Thursday 4 December at Yew Tree House, courtesy of David Wright .   Mike Johnson had sent his apologies in advance, and Christine Beresford and Alix Bremridge may be unable to join the meeting until later.