Boston Spa Neighbourhood Plan Steering Group

STEERING GROUP

MINUTES Of the meeting held on Tuesday 11th March 2014 at the Village Hall, Boston Spa, at 7.30pm

1. Present: Geoff Shaw (Chair), Brian Charlton, Sandy Goodall, Jill Jackson, Keith Jackson, Warren Meads, Jeff Newton, Rachel Carnell.

2. Apologies for absence: Mark Yeadon, Paul Hunt, David Thomson, Chris Newsome.

3. Minutes of 11 th February meeting and Matters Arising:  Item 3 – Keith Jackson has been in contact with the statistician who is continuing to work on information relating to the aging population and the housing needs for the village, and further work on traffic flows.  Discussion about the robust evidence base required for the Housing Policy, to include Census data; Re’new Housing Market Assessment, and the Leeds Strategy.  Item 9 – Last bullet point to be amended to read “Sustrans are to be invited to attend the next Working Group meeting.”  Item 10 - A template has been provided to identify green spaces to be designated as ‘special’. A small group will identify suitable sites, consider the implications and options and will propose an action plan.

4. Communications (Geoff Shaw & Chris Newsome) i. Shop Displays/Posters - Chris will be refreshing the posters currently used. ii. Website – No progress to report on the development of a community website. iii. Parish Council Annual Newsletter insert – The insert for the Annual Parish Council Newsletter is with the printer iv Evidence based report – Chris will be contacting a few people to involve them in the production of the report which needs to be completed in May. Evidence still required by the Groups will need to be identified.

5. Feedback from meeting with Leeds CC on 25 th February (Geoff Shaw)  The Leeds Core Strategy has been examined by a government inspector who is in general agreement while seeking a number of changes unlikely to impact on us. Alterations have to be made to building land allocation where the release should be more evenly spread and not back loaded to the end of the programme.

6. NP Objectives and Policies (Geoff Shaw) i. Workshop with Mike Dando/Planning Aid – 13 th May  It was agreed in preparation for the meeting all TGs will finalise their policies.  All policies will be circulated to members for their consideration and comments a week before the SG meeting on 8th April.  The next SG meeting will start at 7.00pm and the focus will be the discussion and agreement on the policies to be presented at the workshop.

7. Public exhibitions and presentations 11 th /12 th /16 th July at the Village Hall  Detail will be finalised following the workshop on 13th May but the format will be the same as used last year.  The difference between policies and projects will be covered in preparation for potential questions that may arise.

8. Membership of the Steering Group and Topic Groups  TG membership has been reviewed and updated.

9. Topic Group Progress Reports i. Housing and Development (Sandy Goodall) – Group is meeting on 19th March to agree the policies to be presented. All the landowners of the SHLA sites have been contacted as a courtesy. A meeting will be arranged with the landowner of the proposed site at West End to discuss potential development. ii. Protection of buildings, Sites and Views (Paul Hunt) – No report provided iii. Community and Wellbeing (Brian Charlton) – There are only one or two policies but a number of aspirations to be documented. iv. Environment and Infrastructure (Jill Jackson) – Policies being finalised. Evidence base being pulled together and work starting to look at how policies will be implemented. v. Transport and getting about (Jeff Newton) – Policies are nearly complete. Transport is also more about aspirations than policies. There was some discussion about the potential to link a cycle way along Primrose Lane with the Sustrans route. vi. Business and Employment (Keith Jackson) – Policies are in the final stages of agreement. vii. Communications (Chris Newsome) – Covered at item 4.

11. Finance  A total of £10,245.33 has been received from Leeds CC.

12. Any Other business - None

Date of next meeting 8th April 2014 at 7.00pm in the Village Hall. There will be a short agenda; the main business will be the agreement of the policies to be presented at the workshop on 13th May.

Meeting closed at 21.45hrs.