Minutes of the Girton Parish Plan Steering Committee

24 January 2008; 7:30pm Cotton Hall, Girton

Present:

Douglas de Lacey (Acting Chairman);
James Ford-Smith;
Val Godby;
Kieran Mansley;
Don Absalom;
Robin Scrine;
Alex Duncan

The Chairman welcomed the new Parish Plan Steering committee members who introduced themselves to each other. The chairman outlined the intention to elect a chairperson from the steering committee that was not also a parish councilor and that this precluded him from the post in the future. He also pointed out that the public meeting held in the village on the 14th January 2008 constituted the first meeting of Parish Plan Steering Committee at which the initial members of the Steering Committee (GPPSC) had first been appointed.

1. No apologies were received, but the Chairman noted that two other people had offered to stand on the committee but were not present.

2. Alex Duncan was appointed as Secretary to the steering committee.

3. Kieran Mansley was appointed publicity officer. Other officers are to be decided when we have more members of the committee.

4. A constitution for the SC was discussed and it was agreed that the constitution provided by Cambridgeshire ACRE should be adopted with the following amendments: a. the name of the organization will be the Girton Parish Plan Steering Committee b. deletion of the paragraphs relating to claims of expenditure under the Finance section. Note: currently the group has no budget and the generation of a budget and appointment of a treasurer was noted as an important point to reconsider when the GPP gains some momentum.
Action: generate a written constitution for GPPSC (14th February, 2008. AD)

5. Membership of the Steering Group. The SC agreed the importance of having a GPPSC that was truly representative including geographical spread (e.g. Wellbrook) age spread (some younger members) as well as more female members. The SC agreed to appeal and / or co-opt other members on to the SC up to a maximum of twelve individuals. It was noted that in addition to the standing members that there would also be a requirement for volunteers to serve on subcommittees on key GPP projects.

6. The contributions from others was noted including a message from Keith Archer, collated notes from the open meeting on 14 January, Parish Plans from other Cambridgeshire villages and notes from conversation with Melanie Baker at Cambridgeshire ACRE.

It was also suggested that we note results from previous surveys and current Parish Council subcommittees, for example the environment committee and the sports and recreation committee.
Action: check on previous village survey results (14th February, 2008. VG)
provide reports from PC subcommittees (14th February, 2008. JF-S)

7. The extent of a plan of action was discussed and grouped into the following key areas:

• Identity including maintaining the Parish boundary; the green belt and separation between town and village; what do we want our village to be;
• Environment wildlife; preservation of land and buildings; allotments; sustainable Girton initiatives
• Education Pre-school, Primary; Secondary; catchment areas; adult education;
• Traffic effects & control of new housing construction traffic; effects & control of new housing residential traffic; traffic pollution (noise, air); parking, P&R and guided bus access and provision; proposed congestion charge zone; public transport; minimizing traffic impact of ourselves on village environment; footpaths, cyclepaths, bridleways etc;
• Facilities shops, entertainment, community services
• Safety traffic, household, facilities

Action: expand section 7 to help provide skeleton of questionnaire (14th February, 2008. All)
Provide list of all potential stakeholders in GPP (14th February, 2008. All).

Abbreviations:
ACRE - Action with Communities in Rural England
GPP - Girton Parish Plan
GPPSC - GPP Steering Committee
PC - Parish Council
P&R - Park & Ride
SC - Steering Committee