Examples of possible issues

• Is speeding traffic or dog fouling a major problem?
• Is parking a problem, or our narrow roads causing parked cars to block the pavement?
• Are there problems with our refuse collection or public transport or pavements?
• Do we have enough facilities for our youngsters or mothers & toddlers or elderly residents?  If not, what is missing?
• Are we well served by the Police or NHS or Social Services?  If not, how could this be improved?
• Is the infrequent evening bus service an issue?
• What about the congestion in the Elm Close area?

Good things
Please affirm things that you value in the village that you would want protected and would not like to lose, such as:

• Shops, including the pharmacy and dentist, and the Roseycombe
• Village Hall and Village Hall Committee
• Brandon Woods community woodland and the Friends of Brandon Woods
• The street lighting provision and the 30mph limit on Rugby Road
• Allotments, playing field, pavilion and village green with children’s playground
• The 15 minute bus service into Coventry and evening buses to the hospital
• The Primary School
• Parish Council

You may agree or disagree with any of those examples, and you may have other ideas.  Please tell us what you think – we need to know your point of view!

Please take a few minutes to think about what issues you or your group believes need to be addressed and jot your views down in a comment below…  You can do that by clicking the “Comment”  link below. You can do it anonymously, or you can leave your name, and even add your e-mail address, as you wish.

Issues facing the village
To help us develop the Parish Plan Questionnaire, we are compiling a list of issues facing the village that residents feel strongly about.  We already have a long list, and we will be talking to all local and Village Hall user groups to establish their likely issues.

Housing Needs Survey Questionnaire
This is the Questionnaire for the Housing Needs Survey, which will be delivered personally to every household by members of the Steering Group and Volunteers Group over two weeks from the end of February.  Maximisation of the number of completed questionnaires returned will be helped by an explanation of its purpose and offer of assistance to each household on delivery.  All completed returned questionnaires will be entered into a £50 prize draw, to further encourage completions.

Open Day – 24th March
The Village Hall will be open to residents from 10am to 5pm.   The object is to enable residents to get to know more about the Parish Plan Project and the progress to date towards its final production.  A representative of Midlands Rural Housing will be available until 2 pm to deal with any questions relating to the Housing Survey.

Next Newsletter
Watch out for the next Newsletter, coming soon.  (The minutes document mentions coloured papaer for the Newsletter, but it will be on white paper because coloured is a lot more expensive.)

Team Get-Together – 20th February
This will be a get-together of the Steering Group and Volunteers.  The purpose of  this meeting will be to enable group members and volunteers to get to know each other, and to update volunteers on the present status of the project.   We’ll also work out arrangements for delivering the questionnaires.

See more information in the full minutes document.

There is at present no indication of Warwickshire County Council’s intentions for the library site after it closes at the end of March.

As a prelude to our work on the Parish Plan for Binley Woods, we would like to invite residents to make suggestions on what you would like to see on this site.  Please do that by adding comments below this article, by clicking the link to “Leave a Comment”.  You can do that anonymously, or you can leave your name, and even your e-mail address, as you wish.

The aim here is to take the temperature before formalising the (comprehensive) survey that will be given to all Binley Woods residents.  So this exercise is not a survey, and we’re not asking you to vote.  But we would like to see what ideas are out there.

Here are some examples to get you thinking.  You may have others:

• extend the adjacent Rugby Council sheltered housing
• a car park for sports teams and supporters using the recreation field, to relieve parking congestion
• social housing
• a high-spec detached private residential property
• a clinic / medical centre
• a small gym along the lines of Wolston’s

Please pass the message on to your friends and neighbours in Binley Woods.  You can send them an e-mail by clicking the “Share this” grey e-mail icon below.  If you’re on Facebook, you can share it with your friends on Facebook by clicking the Facebook icon.

Now please leave a comment!

(Apologies if you have received this twice)

This is how it is supposed to work:

1. New articles on the the Parish Plan are added here, to the website
2. They are automatically notified by e-mail to everyone who has added their e-mail address for notifications by e-mail
3. They are also automatically notified to the Binley Woods Facebook community page
4. And then Facebook will display the notification on the Facebook news feed for everyone who has liked the Binley Woods Facebook community page

I’m trying it out because Facebook is so opaque that I want to know it works before posting a real article here on the web page.

Facebook already misled me – it offered me the service of notifying a list of people about the new Binley Woods Facebook page, and so I thought it would send invitations to like the Binley Woods page.  In fact it seems it sent out friend requests to be my (John Stanley’s) friend!  Not the same thing at all.

So I won’t be at all offended if you don’t want to be my friend on Facebook, but if you are a member of Facebook, do please consider liking the Binley Woods Facebook page, which you can do right here on the website, by clicking the Like button on the right hand side of this page, where it says “Visit us on Facebook”.  It’s not the same thing as liking an article, which you do by clicking the Facebook icon at the end of an article – you know the difference?  Of course you do!

And more important, please draw the attention of Binley Woods people you know who are mainly users of Facebook, so they can like the Binley Woods Facebook community page and be able to participate in what is going on there.  The link to our Facebook page is also on the right of this page, where it says “Visit us on Facebook”.

You will also all be on tenterhooks to find out what happens to Comments…  I don’t know yet, so I will add a comment to this article, first to find out, and then to expose my new knowledge to you.  If anyone can’t wait, then you can add a comment too.

To download, (left-)click on the image you need to display it on its own, and and then save it to your computer.

• The first one in each row is for printing up to 5 cm square at printer resolution 300 dots per inch.  So use this one in Word documents and PDFs where the logo will be printed up to 5cm square.  (On a display screen or e-mail it will go up to about 18 cm without blurring.)
• The second one is for screen display or inserted in an e-mail at the size shown, or for printing up to about 1.5 cm
• The third one is for display or e-mails at the size shown.  It’s too small for documents that will be printed.

For black-and-white documents:

We are establishing contacts

• with Rugby Borough Council’s Forward Planning Team, to discuss the Village Design Statement
• with Rugby Borough Council’s Local Strategic Partnership, who can provide help with the Parish Plan once key issues have been identified in consultation with residents
• with the Coventry Telegraph and BBC Coventry and Warwickshire, to publicise the project when we have some positive news
• with Midlands Rural Housing, who are Rugby Borough’s partner for conducting Housing Needs Surveys.

The minutes also highlight actions that are being planned to inform and involve residents and to promote and assist people in completing the surveys.

The subgroups reported progress, and you can read the notes of the first meeting of the Housing Needs Group.

The full minutes also contain reports from the Chair and Treasurer, some notes about our logo, and dates of future meeting.

Midlands Rural Housing can produce a Housing Needs Survey together with a covering letter, analyse the results and produce a report.  Richard has considerable experience and expertise in drawing up questionnaires but would consult with us to decide on the questions to be included.  There would be no cost to us.

Discussion took place around the timescale and consensus was that the questionnaire should be administered in early spring.  This would be well before the main Parish Plan survey but that was considered useful for several reasons:

1. Analysis will be by a separate body so it does not need to be an integral part of the main survey
2. Information collected may be very useful in informing the main questionnaire
3. An earlier survey will keep people interested and involved
4. Two shorter questionnaires with a period of time in between would be less daunting than one long questionnaire.  This might improve response rate.

We discussed strategies for encouraging people to respond. Suggestions included:

1. Posters placed on lamp posts
2. Offering residents the services of a volunteer to help fill in the questionnaire
3. Volunteers being on hand at village coffee morning or other specified community event

Richard agreed to provide information for the Project Plan and to produce a draft questionnaire and covering letter so that these can be discussed at the next Housing Needs Group meeting.

We all felt this had been a very useful meeting.

The complete newsletter is on the Parish Council website.  It’s the November 2011 one here.

Here is an extract, about what happens next …

Want To Get Involved?

Whilst we had a great response to our initial appeal for volunteers, we would be grateful for more help. We are especially keen to find residents who:

• Can represent the views of the younger elements of the community – parents and toddlers, primary school age and teenagers – and other community groups
• Have architectural experience and could spare a couple of hours a month to help out with the Village Design Statement

If you are interested in any of the above, or just want to get involved in this key project for the village, please give Ken a bell on 02476 540422.

What next?

There will be lots happening on the Parish Plan in the New Year:

• We will be canvassing the views of residents, local clubs and community groups over what the Parish Plan should cover;
• We intend holding a Public Exhibition in the Village Hall where you can come along and share your views on the issues facing Binley Woods and tell us what you like, and don’t like, about the village;
• A Housing Needs questionnaire will be issued to all residents and we would urge you to fill it in, even if you do not have any immediate housing needs; and
• Later in the year, you will receive the Parish Plan / Village Design Statement questionnaire asking for your input to help shape the village’s future. Please, please, please fill this in – it is your main opportunity to have your say.

The first edition of the Parish Plan newsletter is due out early in 2012 and will have further details on the above. Stay tuned for the next exciting episode…

The attached maps show:

1. The extent of the Green Belt in the Rugby Borough area
2. The extent of the Green Belt around Binley Woods
3. Details of the notation used on the maps

Cheers,
Ken.

As this was the first Steering Group meeting, the members introduced themselves in turn. It was apparent that we had a broad section of the community represented on the Steering Group with a great deal of experience of serving Binley Woods village.

What Do We Want To Produce?

After some discussion, it was agreed that we will produce all three possible deliverables:

• Parish Plan
• Housing Needs Survey
• Village Design Statement

Each one was seen as a valuable tool to help shape the future of the village.  Three sub-groups will be formed to take each one forward.  Members of the Sub-groups are listed in the full meeting minutes.

We will consider a “pre-questionnaire” to determine those issues that the residents of Binley Woods feel should be covered in the Parish Plan.

The Parish Plan should be a living document that would continue to develop and evolve to meet the changing needs of the village.

Date of Next / Future Meetings

Future Steering Group meetings will be held on the last Thursday of each month except December and August.