Perranzabuloe Parish Offices, Ponsmere Valley, Perranporth

1        Public Participation

No members of the public attended.

2        Attendance and Apologies

SG members: Chris Ashby-Zwozdiak, Susan Dutson, Andrew Bown, Kevin Havill, Rory Jenkins (chair), & Roger Kayes

Observer: Michael Callam arrived after 30 minutes.

Will Rogers (secretary) tendered apologies

3        Approval of Minutes of Meeting on 10^th April 2019

The minutes were approved, subject to amendments in the text about Housing.  Proposed by Kevin, seconded by Rory and accepted unanimously.

4        Matters arising

Roger reported that William is unable to apply for Locality funding for the costs of the questionnaire, given the closure of the scheme to new applications at this time, around the beginning of the new financial year.  That doesn’t materially matter since he will be able to access the remainder of the £9000 total fund available from Locality for future expenditure, leaving the costs for the questionnaire to be covered by the £15000 fund put aside by the Parish council for the NDP.

5        Amendment of Terms of Reference

This again was not possible to advance since less than two-thirds of the total membership was present.

6        Declarations of Interest

Roger reported that he had realised following a comment from Kevin at the last meeting that he has been confusing two dimensions:

• The standard declaration of interest, as exemplified by the form given to new parish councillors, which would apply to someone who owns property or is involved with a particular commercial company, where decisions of an organisation (in this case, the Parish Council) might reasonably be expected to impacted.  In the interests of transparency and the evident avoidance of conflict, that person would be expected to declare an interest.
• There is a broader issue connected with ensuring that there is an appropriate balance on the Steering Group of people with a pro-development bias, versus those with more of a conservationist, pro-environment stopping-development orientation. It would be good practice for the SG to try and achieve an appropriate balance between these two, to avoid the NDP being steered in one or another direction, without regard to the expressed interests of the wider community.

After considerable discussion, it was decided to adopt a simplified ‘declaration of interest’ form (covering the first bullet point above), and leave the second dimension to be monitored as new members were accepted onto the SG.  The new approach (agreed on, yet still to be incorporated into the Terms of Reference) of waiting until a prospective new member has attended at least two SG meetings, would give the group the opportunity to see how that member would affect the balance.

7        Discussion of the format of Steering Group meetings

It was suggested that the Secretary delete this from the next agenda since it was felt that the issues raised under this heading had been satisfactorily resolved.

8        Questionnaire

Supply of photographs: the contribution of images of for use in the questionnaire from various people not on the Steering Group was noted and thanks were given to (in alphabetical order): Jamie Turnbull, Karen Daubney, Louise Anne Waters and Sarah Shobrook.

There was discussion of:

• the distribution of posters through the parish.
• the current discussions with the practice manager of Perranporth surgery with a view to setting up of a table in the foyer to the surgery on three mornings following the release of the questionnaire, to encourage people to fill it in.
• Linda offered to investigate the possibility of doing something similar at the front of the main co-op.
• the possibility of needing to employ one or two people to process paper questionnaires, based on experience of the heavy workload required to process the returns during the preparation of the Community Plan in 2012.  To be further discussed at the next meeting, depending on the number of returns.

9        Reports from Focus Groups

Housing and Open space

Roger reported that he has been contacted by Simon Ellis of CAD architects as part of their community consultation related to a housing application that was due to be submitted in the summer.  He had advised that the NDP had not yet developed any policies and thus there was no basis for the NDP to make a contribution to this quasi-formal consultation. Rory agreed with this approach.

BETI

A meeting was held on the 11th of April with Stephen Horscroft, Economic Development Officer of Cornwall Council. He was supportive of the draft policies prepared for the business questionnaire.

Kevin reported attending a talk by retail expert Bill Grimsey on the 10th of May at Cornwall Council on the future of town centres.

A BETI meeting was held on the 13th of May when the number of business addresses on the list obtained from the Valuation Office was whittled down to 560.  Kevin put forward a proposal that Will would obtain a quote from Jeff Muir for producing 560 questionnaires (plus some spares), to be mailed out individually in an envelope with a return envelope. These would be sent out in early September.  This was approved unanimously.

Roger quizzed Kevin about the value to the NDP of the business questionnaire.  In response, Kevin put forward various points to support the case that it would be a useful exercise, both for the NDP itself as well as more widely.

Environment and Heritage

Chris reported on progress with the Local Landscape Character Assessment, with a substantial number of visits to different character types already undertaken. There was consideration of the prospect of using the services of Kas Statham to assist but no decision was taken.

10   Administration and Background Organisational Matters

Nothing to discuss.

11     Financial Matters

Ditto.

12     Any other Business

Kevin encouraged members to have a detailed look at the OCSI report with data for our parish, particularly on deprivation, issues that the NDP might be able to help with.

Roger talked about the tools available for preparing maps as working documents and for inclusion in the final NDP.  Confusion continues about the usefulness in this context of the ‘Cornwall Council Interactive Map’, freely available online, and the slightly different ‘Local Councils Interactive Map’ which requires a password to access (available on request from Roger, for NDP purposes only).  Discussions are on oing with technical sections within Cornwall Council, with the help of Kas Statham, the LLCA trainer.  Roger is also pursuing the potential for use of QGIS to produce suitable maps, with the help of a volunteer who already uses this programme.  Chris and Sue expressed an interest in being involved in any training.

13     Dates of future meetings for 2019

Tue 11th Jun
Wed 10th July
Thu 15th Aug
Tue 10th Sep
Wed 16th Oct
Thu 14th Nov
Tue 10th Dec

Steering Group Meeting 10^th April 2019
Minutes

Perranzabuloe Parish Offices, Ponsmere Valley, Perranporth

1       Public Participation

No members of the public attended.

2       Attendance and Apologies

SG members: Chris Ashby-Zwozdiak, Linda Boylen, Susan Dutson, Kevin Havill, Rory Jenkins, Roger Kayes, William Rogers

Observer: Michael Callam

Karen Colam, Andrew Bown & Phil Moore tendered apologies

3       Approval of Minutes of Meeting on 12^th March 2019

The minutes were approved: proposed by RJ, seconded by RK, and accepted unanimously.

4       Matters arising

None

5       Discussion of the format of Steering Group meetings

This was not discussed, but will be a subject of the meeting on Thursday 16^th May

6       Reports from Focus Groups

HOUSING – Report by Roger Kayes

• There was no Focus Group meeting since that recorded in last SG meeting (12^th March 2019).
• RK, KH & WR attended a meeting with Imogen Day generally discussing the NDP
• RK, WR and members of the PCC attended a ‘Meet the Planners’ presentation.  Perranzabuloe falls under Cornwall Council Area 4 .  The planners covering our parish are Tim Marsh and Glenn Lowe, under the leadership of Jeremy Content.  RK will arrange a meeting with these people.
• RK raised for discussion the idea of exploring the merits of the allocation a large housing site in the NDP, against the background of several sources promoting the benefits to the community of such an approach. MC offered to arrange a meeting with Tim Marsh for an initial exploration of aspects of this option.  It was agreed that such an approach would, if adopted, carry the risk of rejection of the entire NDP at referendum stage, given the hostility within the parish to new large housing sites.

BETI- Report by Kevin Havill

See Appendix 1.

Environment & Heritage – Report by Chris Ashby-Zwozdiak

Two Local Landscape Characteristic Assessments (LLCA’s) have so far been completed, one for ‘The Girt in Perrancoombe, and the other at Callestick – both are examples of steep valley sides. Turn-out was good and Sue Dutson has collated the data collection forms into singe typed documents.

It was noted that Kathryn Statham, who fronts this initiative on behalf of Cornwall Council is prepared to undertake the work commercially on a Freelance basis.  Chris was asked to investigate this further, so that the SG can assess this, complete with indicative costing.

Chris and Sue intend to investigate involving the children at our local primary schools, Perranporth and Goonhavern with the LLCA process so that we can evidence participation and engagement with a wider demographic of the parish. This may well also aid participation and encourage greater uptake with the forthcoming survey.

A further meeting to decide where next to arrange LLCA’s will be arranged.

Questionnaire

The first draft of the Questionnaire is expected from the designers (Jeff Muir).  Comments have been received from various SG members, and some early corrections obtained.  These will be included in the draft, and then it will be sent to Phil Moore for a final independent check.  It is hoped to subsequently return these to Jeff Muir immediately after, so that these can be forwarded to the printer immediately after Easter.  Distribution to the parishioners is expected to be at the beginning of May.

All people who showed interest in the NDP will be asked by email to entice at least 5 of their friends to complete the form.

Additional forms and a deposit box will be available at Perranporth Sub-Post office; Londis Store, Goonhavern; Callestick Farm, and the Chiverton Arms.

Notices will be placed in shop windows, on notice boards around the Parish, as well as other visible locations.  It is possible that banners will be displayed in Perranporth.

WR will attempt to obtain another grant from ‘Localities’ to partially cover this exercise.

The initial idea of cream teas and ice creams for parishioners has been abandoned due to lack of people who can organise the day, and doubt about the number of people who would attend as well as doubts regarding its usefulness in getting more questionnaires completed.

7       Administration and Background Organisational Matters

None

8            Amendment of Terms of Reference and Declarations of Interests (DOI)

These were not discussed, but will form an early agenda item in the May SG meeting

9       Financial Matters

WR will attempt to get a grant from ‘Communities’ to cover the questionnaire and its distribution.

WR stated that money is available in the National Lotteries Community fund.  Thought must be given to future expenditure (eg help with Landscape Character assessment, and professional help (eg policy drafting).

10    Any other Business

None.

11    Items for next meeting

Discussion of the  Format of Steering Group Meetings,

12    Dates of future meetings for 2019

• Thu 16th May
• Tue 11th Jun
• Wed 10th July
• Thu 15th Aug
• Tue 10th Sep
• Wed 16th Oct
• Thu 14th Nov
• Tue 10th Dec

Appendix 1            Report from BETI

On 18th March BETI hosted a special meeting in conjunction with Douglas Boden and Patrick Polglase, officers from Cornwall Council who presented plans for the cycle network announced in a few weeks earlier. BETI had previously lobbied for -site money from the Highways England A30 Carland to Chiverton for cycle tracks. Highways England and Cornwall Council have allocated £19m for a system of four new cycle tracks including one from Perranporth to Newquay via Goonhavern. This track will link to others opening up a significant system. Design work is ongoing but the intention is to use as far as possible the old railway route diverting where necessary. The Camel Trail was quoted as the benchmark and Cornwall Council have the ambition that there will be significant health, recreation and economic benefits. We are asked by Cornwall Council to stay in contact and assist with design and routing input.

On the 3^rd April at County Hall, Kevin Havill met Rebecca Cohen, the officer responsible for co-ordinating the OCSI reports at Cornwall Council and given the chance to check the underlying mapping data. Data is not collected on a parish basis but derived by merging that from smaller sub areas. It was possible to see that the current report accurately follows our parish boundary and is therefore reliable.

Oxford Consultants for Social Inclusion (OCSI) is a spin-out research consultancy from the Social Disadvantage Research Centre at the University of Oxford. Cornwall Council are subscribers to OCSI and we have been encouraged to make use of the OCSI findings. We commend all members of the steering and focus groups read this report as it is a useful analysis of the parish’s population, housing, health and work. It identifies issues we could seek to address.

Rebecca Cohen also has responsibilities for the group dealing with Health and Well-being matters. Further information regarding these issues is to be supplied by the council and BETI will include these within its area of interest co-opting members of the community to assist.

On 9th April the group met primarily to discuss the questionnaires and in particular the business one and to review the OCSI Insight report.

The objective of business questionnaire is that garner information to understand how the economy in Perranzabuloe works and be able to make provision to allow successful enterprises flourish in future. Moreover we are required to think about both the dormitory and working populations in Perranzabuloe.

Obtaining information about individual businesses located in the parish hasn’t been easy but matching the Valuation Office records against a listing of all post codes derived from the public questionnaire has produced more than anticipated a list of approx. 630 individual addresses. This of course doesn’t include people who are using their homes as workplaces .

It is requested that funding be allocated to enable the production, circulation and if necessary analysis of this questionnaire.  This is  likely to be in excess of £1000. A more precise costing will be made.

Perranzabuloe Parish Offices, Ponsmere Valley, Perranporth

Public Participation

Anne & John Tranter (interested in the Environment & Heritage) Isobel Howard (interested in Housing ) and Phyllis James (interested in Environment & Heritage), attended for part of the meeting

Attendance and Apologies

Karen Colam, Kevin Havil & Janine Branch tendered apologies.

1.   Approval of Minutes of Meeting on 6th December 2018

The minutes were approved subject to certain corrections. These will be checked by Roger Kayes (RK) and then sent to Rory Jenkins (RJ) to place upon the web page.

Minutes (subject to amendments) were approved by RK, seconded by RJ and accepted unanimously.

2.      Matters arising

The Terms of Reference need to be revised to include proposals for appointment of new members to the SG and removal of non-participating members.  Amendment of the ToR requires that the item be put on the agenda in advance, and approved by two-thirds of the current SG membership.  RK proposed, and RJ seconded, that an agenda item be included for the next meeting.  RK agreed to prepare a note for that meeting.

3.      Discussion of the format of Steering Group meetings

Discussion upon the streamlining of meetings was discussed:  whether the public should be invited, whether the participation should be controlled, and whether more meetings were necessary to inform the public of progress on the NDP.  It was decided after a vote (proposed by RJ, seconded by RK) that the public should always be welcomed to attend but their participation should be limited to either the start or end of the meeting.  It was decided that it the SG should consider holding a public engagement meeting approximately every 3 months.

4.      Reports from Focus Groups

Each FG was tasked at the last meeting with coming forward with a summary list of what might be achievable in the NDP, to form the basis for generating the questionnaire.

HOUSING – Report by Roger Kayes

RK talked briefly about the list of 10 housing and open space issues that his group had brought forward.  From this list will be drawn questions for the forthcoming survey.  Linda Boylen (LB) reported on her work to prepare survey questions on the subject of specialist housing.

RK brought up the issue which had raised emotions at his FG meeting in January – whether to include in the questionnaire a question about Permanent Residence Policy (Second Homes Policy).  He brought it to this SG for a decision but this was pushed to a future SG.

BETI- Report by Kevin Havill

The BETI Focus group has met twice already this year on 17th and 23rd January, attended in each case by over a dozen participants. This included several new members to the group willing to help take the agenda forward.

The task set has been to examine other completed NDPs and those in hand to lift policies that are considered to be of particular relevance to Perranzabuloe. Currently the main focus has been on the NDPs for St Agnes, Roche, Illogen, Bude, Chacewater and Newquay. It is accepted that there will also be the need for other parish specific issues to be covered but given that many of these parishes have issues similar to Perranzabuloe looking at their plans is seen as a good starting point.

The group are currently considering a large PowerPoint presentation of policies already ‘borrowed’ and will at the next meeting be asked confirm, add or cull items from this base group. Having identified the main issues they  will then be able to assemble questions for the forthcoming household questionnaire and others specifically targeted towards business and commercial enterprises.

Initial policy selection is due to be finished by mid February and questions formulated in March.

Minutes of the meetings have been posted on the ‘www.perranplan.co.uk’ website

Environment & Heritage- Report by Christine Ashby-Zwozdiak (CAZ)

The first meeting since the public meetings in November – had 8 new participants other than SG and existing members of group.

CAZ went over her meeting with Cornwall Wildlife Trust in conjunction with points made by Sarah Furley in order to provide areas of focus.  The group discussed local green space designation, SUDS, wildlife provision, and views and vistas.

Request was made for help with the heritage aspect and CAZ has secured the valued assistance of Ryan Smith who has since provided much material and insight.

Although the meeting was useful CAZ expressed her concern that uptake is very low, that it is heavily Perranporth centric, and that many participants have not read the necessary literature regarding policy making and gained the sort of understanding required for the next stage. A huge amount of background reading is required here so that questionnaires are truly representative of what we wish to achieve, so rather than have another meeting, an explorative ‘homework task’ was set, via email, so that the FG has some solid material to work with at the subsequent meeting on Tuesday 12^th Feb.

Local Landscape Character Assessment training is due to take place on Saturday 16^th March 2019.

5.      Communication update

Questionnaire

WR (Will Rogers) produced a bar chart, indicating when actions would aim to be completed.  It was aimed to produce questions for forwarding to Sarah Furley by 6^th March, allowing her one week to examine before going to print.  A copy of the proposed timetable accompanies these minutes.  It is hoped to organise the mail shot mid-April, with surveys returned in May.

It was proposed by Phil Moore (PM), seconded by RK, that WR as secretary has got the approval of the SG to appoint the appropriate person to produce the publications.  This was carried unanimously.  It was noted that Jeff Muir’s questionnaire when filled in online automatically go into ‘Survey Monkey’.  RJ reported that St Agnes is amenable to our cloning of their ‘Survey Monkey’.

On the basis of the four example questionnaires discussed, it was suggested by RJ that each FG does not propose more than ten questions, as a rule of thumb, or RK suggested 8 -12.

Many related issues were discussed.  CAZ was firm in the view that if we are going to include prizes to incentivise respondents, we should include prizes to attract different age groups.

It was agreed to hold a meeting on Wednesday 6^th March to discuss the questions, prior to sending them to Sarah Furley.  This meeting would be in addition to the SG Meeting on 12^th March, at which unresolved issues on the questionnaire would be considered.

6.     Administration and Background Organisational Matters

Support in the use of Mailchimp

RJ will organise for some coaching for SG members- date & time to be advised later. Mailchimp should be used for all group emails, ensuring that we are GDPR compliant.

Facebook Monitoring

A volunteer is needed to monitor the ‘Facebook‘ page.

Mapping

RK reported that he had done some work on mapping for the purposes of the NDP.  He advised that through the PC, we have access Ordnance Survey and associated data via the Public Service Mapping Agreement (PSMA).  Data downloads have to be handled through a GIS system, such as QGISI.  RK can advise further.

Declarations of Interests

It had been agreed that members should be requested to complete a ‘declaration of interests’, as a basis for keeping an eye on the balance in the SG between pro-development and pro-conservation members and conflicts of interest that might arise.  RK distributed a specimen document to the group, and this was discussed.  It was agreed that RK draw up a finished version of this document, adopting amendments suggested, for circulation to RJ for agreement, and then to members of the SG.

7.     Financial Matters

The principle of allowing a set sum of money per Focus Group for incidental expenditure was discussed, but not finalised.

The parish clerk will investigate cost of photocopying using PC copiers.

8.     Any other Business

No new issues raised

9.     Items for next meeting

Focus Groups incidental expenditure.

10. Dates of future meetings for 2019

Wed 10th April

Thu 16th May
Tue 11th Jun
Wed 10th July
Thu 15th Aug
Tue 10th Sep
Wed 16th Oct
Thu 14th Nov
Tue 10th Dec

Appendix 1 – List of Attendees