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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
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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
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? • 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? • What are the issues we want to address? • What evidence do we need? • What are the possible options for addressing each issue? • 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
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 • Working Groups identify key issues and suggestions for the ‘Vision’ • We hold a public event to ask the community about ‘their Godalming and Farncombe’ • Agree Vision and some Objectives • Ongoing work on evidence gathering • 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:townclerk@godalming-tc.gov.uk Chris Bowden Navigus Planning Tel: 01206 700260 Email: chris@navigusplanning.co.uk