Parish Plan Steering Group Meeting 23/02/2012

These are the key points from the meeting.  For the full minutes please read the formal Minutes document.

Progress
The newsletter and Housing Needs questionnaire are now being delivered to households and a number of posters provided by Midlands Rural Housing, have been placed on show at strategic places around the village publicising the questionnaire.

Parish Plan Sub Group
The group has had talks with village groups and has drawn up a list of the 130 issues already received.  Parking is the worst issue recorded and a map will be on show at the Open Day to record the locations of parking issues.

The Open Day  ***Everybody welcome***

The Parish Plan Open Day
is at Binley Woods Village Hall
on Saturday 24th March 2012

Drop in any time between 10.00am and 5.00pm

Find out what’s happening on the Parish Plan, Housing Needs Survey and Village Design Statement

Have your say on village issues and get help with your housing questionnaire

Meet your MP (11.00am – 12.00 noon)

Bring along your old photos and share your memories of the village

See more information in the full Minutes document.

First Parish Plan Newsletter

The first Parish Plan Newsletter is being distributed in the village.  You can read it here.

It advertises the Parish Plan Open Day on Saturday 24th March:

Drop in any time between 10:00 am and 5:00 pm.  Find out what’s happening and have your say on village issues.  You can get help with your Housing Needs Questionnaire (up to 2:00 pm), and meet your MP (between 11:00 am and 12:00 noon).

Bring along your old photos and share memories of the village.  If you wish, your photos can be scanned while you wait, to provide a village resource for the future.

Read the Newsletter for more information.

There’s a list of the main milestones in the Parish Plan process:

March 2012
Housing Needs Survey questionnaire distributed around the village

June 2012
Housing Needs Survey summary results published

September 2012
Main Parish Plan / Village Design Statement questionnaire distributed around the village

December 2012
Interim Report showing the results of the main questionnaire published

February 2013
Parish Plan Open Day in the Village Hall to gain residents’ endorsement of the main survey findings and input to the ‘action plan’ to address the issues identified

May 2013
Parish Plan and Village Design Statement published

It explains the Housing Needs Survey:

The Housing Needs Survey questionnaires are being distributed around the village at the beginning of March. This timing allows us to follow up on any housing issues identified in the Survey in the main Parish Plan / Village Design Statement questionnaire which will be distributed in the summer.

The Housing Needs Survey is being undertaken for us by an independent body, Midlands Rural Housing, and all the information you provide will be treated in the strictest confidence. Individual replies will not be seen by Rugby Borough Council, the Parish Council or indeed anyone other than a small team of Midlands Rural Housing staff.

Even if you do not consider that you have a housing need, it would be extremely helpful if you would complete the initial part of the questionnaire (that’s only six questions) in order that your views on the village and its current and future housing can be established. And by returning your questionnaire on time, you might even win a £50 cash prize!

What Issues is Binley Woods facing?

We need to identify the issues, and we need to know your point of view
So that we can develop a good Parish Plan questionnaire, please help us to identify those issues that residents of Binley Woods feel strongly about.

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.

Parish Plan Steering Group Meeting 25/01/2012

These are the key points from the meeting.  For the full minutes please read the formal Minutes document.

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.

What should replace the library when it closes?

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!

Logo for inclusion in documents and official e-mails

This is the logo for Binley Woods Parish Plan documents and information, voted for by the Steering Group.  The group of three trees was specially designed by Steven Hier, of Binley Woods.

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:

          

 

 

 

Parish Plan Steering Group Meeting 24/11/2011

This is a summary of the most relevant points from the meeting.  For the full minutes please read the formal Minutes document.

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.

Housing Needs Group Meeting 11/11/2011

The Group met with Richard Mugglestone from Midlands Rural Housing (working under contract to Rugby Borough Council), who spoke about his role in surveying housing needs in rural areas.

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.

Parish Council Newsletter advertises the Parish Plan

This month’s Parish Council Newsletter included information on the Parish Plan Public Launch meeting and the first meeting of the Steering Group.

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…

 

Green Belt

The question of which parts of the village are ‘Green belt’ was raised at the Steering Group meeting – the answer is “everything that is not already built on”.

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.