Notes of Steering Group Meeting,
Kidmore End Parish NDP Steering Group
8 December 2020 at 7.30pm
Zoom video call
1.
2. Declaration of interest
No change from the last meeting.
3. Minutes of last meeting and matters arising
The final version of the minutes of the last meeting was approved.
4. Update on Facilitation package from Locality – CFS10
The final AECOM Facilitation report November 2020 has been received and this was uploaded onto the NDP webpage on 28th November 2020.
The parish council has received a formal complaint from a landowner regarding the final Facilitation Report.
The complaint is that transport and ecology reports were not sent to AECOM, however the Steering Group has not seen these reports as they have never been sent to the Steering Group. In the first Facilitation report / original site assessment these factors were assessed by SODC and OCC and not by AECOM. It is important that all sites put forward by the Call for Sites process have been assessed using the same criteria, which is what has happened. Transport and ecology was not part of the original assessment by Aecom and so was not included in the second assessment.
The landowner has asked for the Facilitation report to be removed from the website. The Steering Group has sought advice from SODC about whether to take the report down and has been told that it is an official, independent report and so should remain on the site.
A reply from the parish council was sent to the landowner to say that his concerns will be brought up at the next parish meeting and that the report will not be removed from the website.
The landowner has also submitted a freedom of information (FOI) request relating to all emails between the Steering Group, SODC and AECOM. All the personal information within this correspondence has to be redacted before anything is shared and so this is quite a lot of work. The Steering Group is not a big organisation and as volunteers with other responsibilities this is time consuming.
The landowner has been advised by both the Steering Group and SODC that all comments relating to the site and any other comments relating to the draft KENDP as a whole should be submitted as part of the Regulation 14 Consultation.
Action:
The FOI is being completed by 24.12.2020 to then be sent to the clerk of the parish council who will send to the landowner.
5. Regulation 14 Consultation to date
The regulation 14 consultation started on 7th November.
Prior to the start of the consultation all of the draft documents were made available to the Parish Council, who endorsed for purposes of the regulation 14 with consultation the draft NDP.
The full and summary drafts of the KENDP were designed by a local graphic designer and both these documents as well as all the appendices were uploaded onto a new NDP consultation page on the parish website. The page also contains a link to the survey so that feedback from the community can be easily gathered and analysed.
Prior to the start of the consultation an email was sent by the Parish Council to all the landowners and stakeholders identified on the database provided by SODC and amended to our specific requirements to notify them of the consultation period.
Leaflets were distributed by volunteers to all the houses in the parish and posters were put up in each village, advising residents of the consultation. Steering Group members have used their personal networks such as village emails and WhatsApp groups to prompt residents to read the draft documents and complete the survey.
The draft Facilitation Report November 2020 was mistakenly posted on the website as an appendix but was removed and then replaced by the final Facilitation report November 2020.
Subsequent to the final Facilitation Report being received from AECOM and a slow response rate overall, it was decided to extend the consultation period to 16th January.
The extended consultation period has been communicated on the parish website as well as on a second leaflet (see point 6 below) and added to posters. The information about the extended consultation was emailed to all landowners and stakeholders previously notified.
Actions:
No actions
6. Publicity and relating issues
The response rate at this stage is relatively low with 147 responses in just over 4 weeks.
A small resident group put out their own leaflet on 21st and 22nd November which objects strongly to the proposed allocation of site CFS 8. This has been delivered to all houses across the parish. This unfortunately includes some misleading information.
In order to communicate the extended consultation period, and try to clarify the facts within the KENDP and rationale behind the proposed allocation in particular, and in line with the Steering Group discussion prior to the start of the consultation, a second leaflet has been produced. The first leaflet advised the community that the consultation was taking place and included a link to the survey. The second leaflet includes the risks of not having an NDP or allocating a site and provides a summary of the key facts within the draft KENPD. It provides a link to the NDP consultation webpage and not directly to the survey. This second leaflet was delivered to all villages except for Cane End on 5th and 6th December. Leaflets will be delivered in Cane End in the next few days.
A poster with the key facts has also been produced and will be displayed in each village in the next few days and uploaded onto the parish council website.
A two-page overview of the draft KENDP has been prepared for the parish council newsletter in January. The Steering Group discussed how this would likely be read by more people if it were a hard rather than electronic copy. The Steering Group will work with the newsletter team to get hard copies printed and distributed in early January.
Actions:
To circulate the 2-page overview to the group and to the newsletter team for inclusion in the parish newsletter.
To speak to graphic designer about print options for the newsletter between Christmas and New Year. To investigate other print options.
10. AOB
A member of the group advised that he will be leaving the parish in early 2021 and therefore will be resigning from the Steering Group. The group thanked him for his involvement and wished him well with his move.
The chairman of the steering group advised the group that she will be resigning as a member of the Parish Council following the parish council meeting on 16.12.2020 and has asked the Steering Group to vote on whether or not she retains her position as Chair of the KENDP Steering Group. The Group unanimously voted for her to remain as Chair of the KENDP Steering Group. The TOR will be amended so that she is now a member of the community and the document will be uploaded to website. The kepc email will be disabled following meeting on 16.12.2020 after her resignation.
The date of the next meeting was not set. This is likely to take place at the end of the consultation and once some early analysis of feedback has been conducted.