Transcript Your plan for Fernhurst - Godalming Town Council

Working Groups launch
Today
• What a Working Group is
• How they will operate
• What work they need to do
• Finalise the Working Groups
• Get you to sign up and meet other
potential members
What does a Working Group do?
• Gathers evidence, suggests options
• Engages with wider community
• It DOES NOT make decisions about what
goes in the final Neighbourhood Plan
– the community of Godalming and Farncombe
does
• You do not have to be on a Working
Group to have a voice
How the Working Groups will work
• Working Group has to be a minimum of 4
(including the lead person)
• Working Group members are either
residents, have a business, own a property
or own land in the parish
• Working Group lead sits on Steering Group
• Each Working Group is responsible for its
own secretarial services
Possible Working Groups
GROUP
POSSIBLE THEMES TO COVER
Housing
Location
Type
(needs)
Heritage &
Design
Heritage
Design
Environment
Green
lungs
Landscape
integrity
Recreational
spaces
Water
management
Waste
water
Transport
Road
Parking
Public
transport
Pedestrian/
cycle
Safety
Sports
Social
activity
Economy
Commerce
Retail/
/industry High Street
Home
working
Community &
Infrastructure
Education
Arts &
Culture
Health
Some possible
issues for the
Working Groups
Housing
• Where should new housing be located?
• What sites do we want to allocate for
housing?
• Are there particular types
of housing that need to
be provided, e.g. small
housing, affordable
housing?
Heritage & Design
• How well is the Conservation Area being
preserved?
• What should new residential development
look like?
• How do we best
celebrate/preserve our
heritage?
Economy
• How can we attract new businesses – do we
want to? If so, where should it be located?
• How can we provide for the needs of our
existing businesses?
• How can we ensure our
High Street continues to
thrive?
• How can we protect our
pubs from being converted
to other uses if they close?
Transport
• Are there any issues with traffic flow through the
area?
• How do we best address the parking problems?
• How can we improve public
transport serving
Godalming town/access to
the railway stations?
• How can we increase
cycling and walking?
Environment
• What green open spaces of value to the
community should we seek to protect?
• How can retain/increase our biodiversity
assets?
• How can we ensure that
new development
minimises its carbon
footprint?
• How can we best
address flood issues?
Community & Infrastructure
• What new leisure and community facilities are
needed?
• What existing leisure and community facilities
need improving/ upgrading?
• What are the needs of young people?
• What impact will development
have on our key infrastructure
– schools, GP surgeries?
What should the Working Groups be?
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Housing
Heritage & Design
Economy
Transport
Environment
Community & Infrastructure
Different groups? Other groups?
How do we produce a
Neighbourhood Plan?
Vision
and
objectives
Evidence
Policies
So how do we produce a Vision?
What does a
sustainable
Godalming
and
Farncombe
look like in 15
years’ time?
What should the Vision be?
• Danger of being ‘motherhood and apple
pie’
– “a wonderful place to live where everyone has
a high value job locally, no large lorries come
through the town and everyone travels by
public transport…”
• Needs to be a realistic narrative
• The Vision informs the Objectives, which
ultimately inform the Policies
So how do we input into the Plan?
1. What are the issues we want to address?
2. What evidence do we need?
3. What are the possible options for
addressing each issue?
4. What is the preferred option for each
issue?
Evidence gathering
• Know your ‘baseline’
– audit what is here today
• Look at what has happened in the past
– Planning permissions, take-up of new
development
• Workshops, debates
• Talk to the experts
– Estate agents, local providers
– We can help with technical stakeholders
Some ‘rules’
• You cannot propose policies which simply
say ‘no’ to development
• Proposals have to be ‘deliverable’
• You have to have the landowners of sites
in the plan on board
• You need to engage with interested
parties
Any Questions?
Next steps
• We are holding 4 launch sessions
• Tell us your preferences for Working
Groups you would like to be on
• We will let you know the outcome shortly
• Everyone that wants to be involved on a
Working Group will have the opportunity
Next Steps
• We will sort out the Working Groups and
suggest a first meeting date/venue
– Introduce yourselves
– Start to talk about the issues and the ‘Vision’
– Appoint a lead
• We will arrange for each group member to
have a Support Document
Process
1. Working Groups identify key issues and
suggestions for the ‘Vision’
2. We hold a public event to ask the
community about ‘their Godalming and
Farncombe’
– Agree Vision and some Objectives
3. Ongoing work on evidence gathering
4. Workshop with Working Groups to
consider solutions
– There will be many cross-cutting issues
Timeline
• Difficult to be precise at this time
– A function of the issues you want to address
• Other equivalent plans are taking up to 18
months to produce a draft Neighbourhood
Plan
• Summer months are best for engagement
Louise Goodfellow
Clerk to Godalming Town Council
Tel: 01483 523575
Email: [email protected]
Chris Bowden
Navigus Planning
Tel: 01206 700260
Email: [email protected]