NPC Minutes Informal Meeting 4th March 2015

1. South Marston Parish Council
Neighbourhood Plan Committee (NPC)
Minutes of an informal meeting held at 7pm on the 4 March 2015
in the Village Hall
1. Present: Colin McEwen, Sylvia Brown, Stuart Young, Stephanie Blair, Barry Thunder,
Tony Leathart, Joan Britton (Clerk)
2. Apologies: Ben Lovelock
3. Sylvia Brown outlined the process of establishing a Neighbourhood Plan based on
the existing SPD. A constructive meeting was held on Monday 2nd
March with Nick
Freer – Sylvia Brown will produce notes from the meeting.
4. Given time pressures on the PC to establish the NPC and undertake preparations for
the forthcoming village meeting on 10 March, it was agreed that this would be an
informal meeting.
5. Appointment of Chair
Prior to the appointment of Chair, a discussion was held concerning the volume of
work required to undertake a Neighbourhood Plan and who was best placed to do
the bulk of the work. Concern about governance issues were expressed if the Chair
and the person appointed as the main NP drafter were one and the same. It was
agreed that these concerns needed to be noted and addressed. Oversight will be
provided by the main body of the NPC and additionally through the appointment of
separate leads on sub-issues.
Tony Leathart proposed Sylvia Brown as the Chair of the Neighbourhood Plan
Committee.
Seconded by Barry Thunder
Agreed by All
6. Governance matters
a. Review of draft constitution
External liaison will be ‘as directed by the Committee’
b. Membership of the group and conflict of interest declarations
Members who are not Parish Councillors will be required to complete a
Declaration of Interest Form to be filed by the PC. Parish councillors have
completed these forms
Agendas will include declarations of interest but rather than list all
declarations of interest for each meeting, a hard copy list of declarations of

2. interest will be produced to be viewed at each meeting with any additional
declarations being noted in the minutes
c. Lead roles for Communication, Finance
It was agreed the following would take the Lead Roles:
Communications – Barry Thunder
Finance – Tony Leathart
SBC Liaison – Sylvia Brown
Rights of Way Officer – Anne Featherstone/Barry Thunder
d. Authorisation of budget spending
The budget for the NPC has been delegated by the Parish Council. A NPC
Finance Report will be presented to the PC at their monthly meeting.
Normally, all expenditure items should be agreed at an NPC meeting. If time
is pressing, it can be authorised by Chair of PC to be copied to Tony
Leathart/NPC Chair.
7. Work programme
a. Meeting dates
Agendas will be posted 5 days before meetings on website and noticeboards.
Questions will be invited in the open 10 minutes and documents explaining
the process and progress will be available for those attending the meeting.
The Village Hall has been booked for NPC meetings on the 1st Tuesday of the
month at 7p.m. If members volunteer at Open Meeting on 10th March 2015,
induction will be put in place (one-to-one with a Parish Councillor) to prepare
for the first full NPC meeting in April.
First meeting - 7th April 7p.m.
b. Review of policy areas to be covered and NPC leads
Footpaths/Right of Way – Barry Thunder / Anne Featherstone
Transport – Colin McEwen/Sylvia Brown will liaise with SBC Forward
Planning
Consultation Statement (history) – Colin McEwen
A bank of photos will be needed – Tony Leathart volunteered to take photos
of identified subjects
8. Public meeting 10 March 2015 7pm in the Village Hall
Sylvia Brown will prepare an opening introduction for the meeting.
Anne Featherstone and Barry Thunder went through their plans for the Open
Meeting. They will prepare Maps showing the Parish boundary and proposed
developments, building up the key locations in the Eastern Village and South
Marston Village area. The second half of the meeting will be a round table
discussion on potential issues on footpaths/cycleways. During the meeting, there will

3. be Q&A sessions to cover general expansion matters. Refreshments will be
provided.
9. Communication and correspondence
NPC to prepare regular newsletters or inserts in PC newsletters. The NPC page on
the SMPC Website page will be used for holding relevant documents
10. Matters to refer to the Expansion Working Group
Outcomes of Footpaths group will need to be reviewed by the Working Group prior to
construction of relevant policies by the NPC group.
Any Other Business Receipt of HHL response to the letter from SBC regarding
further extension of their extant application was noted. PC to consider SMPC
response.
.