NOTES OF EIGHTH PROJECT STEERING COMMITTEE MEETING

Thursday 12^th October 2006 -- at PSJ, Beacon Hall, small Lounge Meeting Room

R.W.G.Butt, Chair, ( + a Topic ) Peasedown St.John Village Plan Ctte (RWGB)

P.R.Provest, Secretary, ( + a Topic ) Peasedown St.John Village Plan Ctte (PRP)

Kathy Thomas Topic Leader ‘Open Spaces, Footpaths, Flora & Fauna’ (KMT)

Ross Thompson Topic Leader ‘Questionnaires format and Data’ (pan-Topic) (RRT)

Celia M.Jones Topic Leader ‘Consumer Interests (Retail)’ (CMCJ)

Nathan Hartley Topic Leader ‘Faith’ (NLRH)

Dave Dixon Local Partnership Co-ordinator, B&NES (D_D)

Alan Shamp representing Dunkerton Village Plan project (AJS)

J.C.L.Lyddieth a resident ( Braysdown Lane ) (JCLL)

Chairman Bob Butt welcomed Celia Jones to her first meeting as a Topic Leader for the Group,

also Alan Shamp, representative of Dunkerton’s Village Plan Group, who had been extended a welcome to attend and comparatively observe how we are progressing our project.

Apologies for Absence received from the following :

Josephine Stockley Vice-Chair, Peasedown St.John Village Plan Ctte (J_S)

N.W.McInnes, Treasurer, ( + a Topic ) Peasedown St.John Village Plan Ctte (NWMcI)

Bridie Marshall Topic Leader ‘Youth’ Village Plan Committee (BFM)

( Ruth Grant permanent in respect of PSJ evening meetings, but supplying advice )

Terry Nicholls, Peasedown Opportunities Project (T_N)

M.J.Gregory Leader ‘Sport’ topic, also representing Community Safety Action Gp (MJG)

Paul Holley Topic Leader ‘Traffic’ (PRH)

Sara Holley Chair, Redlands Residents Committee (SJH)

Gail Coleshill B&NES Councillor for Peasedown St.John (GMC)

J.S.Bolwell Councillor, representing Peasedown St.John Parish Council (JSB)

Donna M.Schofield a resident and interested from Carlingcott viewpoint (DMS)

As Josephine Stockley was unable to regularly attend our meetings on a "Thursday" pattern, she felt it best to relinquish her specific ‘Vice-Chair’ role. She would occasionally be available on Thursdays such as in the Vacation periods. Chairman Bob Butt said Jo Stockley would be very welcome to make such attendances when she could, as a fresh eye was always valuable.

The situation arising in regard to Ian McInnes is recorded separately at Note.5

Draft Minutes had been fully circulated and -NO- bids for amendment had been received.

Chairman Bob Butt thanked members for attending, the primary theme tonight was to make detailed arrangements for the proposed public exhibition promoting our Village Plan project,
this to include providing the public with an initial consultation opportunity, as we were required to do under the conditions specified by ‘Community Action’.

RWGB stressed overall timescale of the whole project needed to be finite as there had been an element of ‘drift’ until now. Ross Thompson’s work discussed at the last meeting showed us the way into the main consultation exercise. After that concentrated effort would be needed on putting together a final high quality document, he would expect finite decisions to be taken on that around December, giving final completion target for document around July/August 2007.

Secretary Peter Provest had no specific report on continued ongoing general administration of the Plan, but he detailed arrangements now made for the proposed exhibition ( shown below )

Treasurer Ian McInnes was unfortunately unable to be present due to illness.

At the August meeting he had advised the Group he would soon be relocating away from PSJ.
and it would be necessary to appoint a new Treasurer and Topic Leader ‘Green Belt’.

This situation now prevailed but there was no obvious candidate to take on the role of Treasurer

In regard to ‘current finances’ Chairman Bob Butt said the £ 1000 approved as a grant from PSJ P.C. would appear to still be intact, yet it was obvious that individuals, notably Kathy Thomas and Peter Provest, had in practice been contributing resource materials to the project which they had financed personally, The problem over making reimbursement claims had been that the Treasurer had not had tangible local funds from which to make disbursements.

Bob Butt ruled that as the major need for expenditures fell within the area of ‘reprographics’,
this problem could to a large extent be met by him authorising Kathy Thomas and Peter Provest to commission such services from Fosseway Press, for which he trusted their use of reasonable discretion, Fosseway Press then to invoice costs in the name of the Village Plan directly to the Parish Council.

+++This arrangement was approved for immediate use as required.+++

In regard to the main potential grant to be routed to us via Community Action, RWGB said he was disappointed at the attitude of rejection from C.A., based on public consultation expectations that were difficult to attain and took little account not only of the finite size of the village population, and therefore percentage proportion of responses, or of the ‘type’ of village.

Celia Jones queried whether there was an accepted definition for a ‘town’ as distinct from a ‘village’ ?. RWGB said this was at the discretion of the Local Authority, and he agreed there were many examples of opposites, i.e. ‘villages’ larger than some ‘towns’, and vice-versa.

It also now appeared PSJ had suffered rejection of Village Plan grant via the C.A. due to the P.C. having put in insufficient investment, yet they had never specifically advised us of this.

RWGB said he had done something positive about this by asking ALCA to press Community Action to not only take the size of Village Plan villages into account, but also village type.

Peter Provest reported on actions taken as decided at last Steering Group meeting :

The originally proposed "two-centre" idea was entirely feasible, and with good co-operation from Bridie Marshall and Derek Kennedy firm bookings had been made as follows :

This took into account the following factors :

---display starts at Youth Centre where the boards are currently housed

---boards will need to be ‘made up’ at Youth Centre at suitable opportunity before 24 Oct.

---boards are not on elevated frames, giving advantage of transport even by smallish car

---( but necessitates any host venue providing two/three tables to raise display off floor level )

---display has to be "staffed" otherwise aim of consulting with public / getting comments is lost

---the above two bookings alone necessitate 2 x 3.5 hour attendances by our member(s)

At the last meeting there had been talk of utilising a display trailer owned by B&NES and moving it around between several other sites in PSJ. Investigation quickly revealed too many problems / conditions over use of B&NES trailer and lack of security if left on sites overnight.

Members present were not able to come up with any other suitable ‘fixed’ venues with adequate space, with availability of tables, ----plus the all important -firm- offer of attendance staffing !

The two venues already arranged were therefore confirmed and publicity to be on that basis.

There was however no good reason why the displays could not be carefully dismounted and the boards borrowed again for re-use on some future occasion(s).

Board ‘make-up’ to be ( subject to confirmation with Bridie Marshall re access to boards )

+++1700h to 1900h Mon 23 Oct ( PSJ P.C. meeting commences next door at 1900h ) +++

+++ minimum attendance by PRP, KMT, and Nathan Hartley (NLRH), others if relevant. +++

Staffing for the Tuesday would be primarily by Kathy Thomas. Peter Provest now had a meeting in Radstock that afternoon but hopefully would be back in PSJ to relieve KMT for the last hour or so. PRP could also look after the display which would be a ‘foyer’ item for visitors arriving for the C.S.A.G. that evening. It was agreed our display must not interfere with or detract from C.S.A.G. proceedings, nor vice-versa.

Staffing for the Thursday would be primarily by Peter Provest.

RWGB said he would aim to provide a floating presence on both the Tuesday and the Thursday, similar to what he had done on Village Fun Day.

It was hoped other members of the Steering Group would contribute their time or resource.

Details of the Visible Display Area of the boards had been separately advised to Topic Leaders prior to tonight’s meeting, in line with the agreement at last meeting that displays should basically be on a basis of : "one Group ( i.e. multiple Topic(s) ) per board"

and materials brought along tonight for members to gain preview of the intended displays.

Fixing to boards is -not- to be by use of either drawing pins or ‘Blu-Tac’.

The boards have a Velcro-type finish which must not be damaged by us.

PRP had purchased a supply of 288 of the special 20mm x 20mm tabs ( £ 28.05 )
which are self-adhesive to the rear of photos, etc, but Velcro-attach to faces of boards.

PRP supplied 48 tabs to KMT and 48 to NLRH, and would bring the rest to fixing-night.

Mike Gregory had already prepared and laminated title strips for the boards in a uniform large typeface, and these were lodged in Youth Centre front office ready for use.

Just -three- Topic Leaders had brought their displays tonight, as requested.

---Kathy Thomas had prepared one board for ‘Environment Group’

She had anticipated that Ian McInnes might not be supplying for ‘Green Belt’, so had utilised some of his earlier submitted material in her display in order to cover his ‘Green Belt’ aspects.

---Peter Provest had prepared one board for ‘Transport’ Topic, subdivided into ‘Past’, ‘Present’, including ‘Coaching’, and ‘Future’ themes.

RWGB said as Paul Holley had not been able to supply material for the ‘Traffic’ side of that Group, he would cover the matter with some relevantly themed views of the Bath Road.

---Nathan Hartley had prepared one board for ‘Faith’, --indeed he was a one-person Group !

Unlike the other two submitted boards which featured ‘places’ and ‘objects’ respectively, Nathan had uniquely obtained images of relevant local ‘people’ to demonstrate his theme,
and members felt this provided a nicely refreshing contrast.

It was noted that on the aspect of ‘First, Existing situation’ Reports, NLRH had this week submitted his promised update on his earlier draft. This would replace the earlier draft as currently on the PSJ P.C. website. PRP said he would shortly be passing it over to KMT for the website uplifting. In his opinion Nathan had produced one of the best and most-balanced

‘First reports’, at an ideal length, of -any- that had been submitted thus far.

Discussion then ensued on various aspects, particularly regarding "missing" Topics / Groups :

As stated this Group was being fully covered with a full board by Kathy Thomas

RWGB said the necessary relinquishing of direct involvment by Josephine Stockley left a hole to be filled on this one. Colin Rich had submitted a draft First report, but this had only dealt with some of the facilities to be found physically within the village. RWGB said this Topic particularly brought to light there was a need to look not just at facilities -within- the village but every remit should consider facilities and needs relevant to the -population- within the village.

E.g. there was no Secondary Education within PSJ, but a need for PSJ youth to have Secondary Education !. Fortunately there was a topical theme to be exploited on this particular point due to the news about Writhlington, and he would find something to display on this.

RWGB was in active discussions with the Principals of both Writhlington and St.Gregorys, and again there was another aspect to be explored on the lines of : "what do the teachers want ?".

As stated ‘Transport’ was being covered with a full board by Peter Provest.

RWGB said if he came across suitable ‘Traffic’ items he would add them to another board.

PRP said he had today received from Gail Coleshill some sheets she had promised Paul Holley ( not on e-mail ). As PRH was not here tonight he would enclose it with his (paper) Minutes.

Nothing to hand from the designated Topic Leaders. RWGB said an elegant relevant display could be made from the current plans about the proposed hospital on the industrial estate.

KMT said the First Report from Jonathan Rich on his Topic, which included graphics, was almost certainly entirely suitable "as it is" for his Topic part of this Group.

It was known Topic Leaders of this Group were ‘leading the way’ over other Groups in regard to amalgamating their Topics into one cohesive Group report for purposes of the final Plan.

However nothing was known as to whether they had prepared material for this display.

Celia Jones felt she may have gone off on a wrong tack in the approach she had taken so far towards identifying retail services for PSJ. She was assured the approach she had taken would indeed be useful in the final report, though not suitable for this visual display exhibition.

RWGB said he had abundant input for the Commercial Services Topic aspects, based on his very recent discussions with Cubex and the other developments regarding the Business Park.

As stated this one-Topic Group was being fully covered by Nathan Hartley

(a) Media publicity. PRP reported Gail Coleshill wished there to be a press photoshoot this coming Monday, in order to get advance publicity for the exhibition into ‘Somerset Guardian’ and ‘Radstock Journal’ next week, ahead of the week of the exhibition.

Members felt there were logistical problems with this, Bridie Marshall was away in regard to accessing the secure storage of the boards, and tonight had shown that not all the Topic boards were yet prepared, hence the agreed "make-up" night of 23^rd October.

RWGB said a preferable practical idea would get us -two- shots of media publicity :

---issue a "Press Release" to the two papers by Monday, as proposed ( without pictures )

---invite Press to either or both venues, when they could photograph genuine visitors

+++RWGB said he would discuss this alternative approach with Gail Coleshill urgently.+++

In response to enquiry, PRP confirmed Minutes of these meetings were still sent regularly to John Whittock in his role as Bath Chronicle correspondent for the Tuesday Peasedown St.John feature, though it seemed to have been some time since our Village Plan had featured there

(b) Poster Publicity

The Peasedown St.John Parish Council Newsletter for October, which had gone to press some time ago, made reference to the poster display that would give venue details, but had cunningly not said how many venues there would be.

Members were agreed the ‘Kathy Thomas’ style A4 posters, with colour picture, were very effective in local shop windows, etc. We now knew that there were going to be no more than the two venues on this occasion so preparation of these would proceed on this basis by KMT.

KMT would look after these on her return from a spell away in the near future.

Ahead of that, RWGB offered to do a kerbside waylaying of mothers outside the school on a suitable day next week before half-term. He would need a supply of a smaller version of the ‘poster’, which could be black/white for economy in reprographics.

Preparation would be by KMT, PRP to arrange reprographics and supply to RWGB
as KMT was going to be away for the near future and they would be needed before her return.

(c) Information Leaflets -at- exhibition

It was agreed the information leaflet produced for Village Fun Day would again be suitable subject to reviewing the wording. It would be nice to have the front picture in colour if possible, subject to colour reprographics costs not being excessive compared with black/white.

KMT would supply PRP with the colour picture to enable make-up on this basis to proceed.

Agreed as 19.00 hrs Thursday 9^th November 2006

The current venue ( small Lounge meeting room, Beacon Hall, PSJ )

was conveniently suitable for our size of meeting and location of membership.

( Venue could not be positively confirmed tonight until contact
made with Derek Kennedy that it was suitably available )