Minutes of the Fifth Meeting of Woodhouse Parish Plan Group
Monday 22nd March 2004

Present [21]
[Names have been removed from this copy (both here and below) for Data Protection reasons]

Previous Minutes
Agreed.

Funds
The Countryside Agency has agreed our Budget in full, and the first payment of 50% has already been received.  The Chair thanked all who had helped to produce the budget proposal.  We are now ready to open a separate bank account. We agreed to have four signatories, any two of these would sign cheques. These are the Chair, Treasurer and Secretary of the Parish Plan Group and the Secretary to the Parish Council.  Our final invoice must be submitted by the end of February 2005.

Questionnaire Design and Use issues
Hazel Fish advised the group on some of the key design issues [paper attached].  In the discussion, an open meeting sometime over a weekend was suggested - possibly an early Sunday in May from 10.30 - 14.00, with as many of the whole group as possible present to explain the work plus exhibits from other parishes.  The aim would be to inform local people of the work of the group and alert them to the forthcoming questionnaire.  Good publicity would be vital.  We agreed to revisit this item.

We discussed the viability of individual versus household questionnaires.  Hazel said that issuing questionnaire to households was less expensive and suggested that we could provide a grid so that responses for e.g. Person 1, Person 2, Person 3 etc. could be entered.  Also possible is a re-phrasing of questions e.g. 'Do you or anyone in your household ….'  We agreed to re-visit this issue after the Pilot.

On overall costs, we could distribute the full final report on CD-ROM as well as via websites and deposit copies in local shops.  All households should be given the Summary.  Full reports could also be sold or sponsored.

The Youth Appraisal must be a separate entity, and could be a centre pages insert.  For the under 10s, Hazel suggested a competition as an alternative to completing a set of questions, asking younger children to write about what they like about living here and what they would like to see in the future - the 'best' entry winning a prize.

We may also need to have separate questions aimed at older people.

Draft Questionnaire
Some changes and additions were tabled and will be incorporated into the 2nd draft.   Gaps noted included tourism.  A question to assess the importance of planning issues to the parish was also suggested.

The Demographic data group [XXXXXXX] has produced some ideas on which questions should be asked, and how to ask them. These will also being incorporated in the 2nd draft.  There was some discussion of the need to ask about ethnicity.  This could be a problem if the questionnaire goes only to households where there are two ethnic group representatives. Helen suggested that census data could be used in the final report.   We agreed to revisit this issue after the Pilot.

Cllr XXXX suggested that the questionnaire should focus on those issues and actions that we could practically influence - on things we can change in our villages.  All questions should be 'tested' against this.  Some of the questions we have generated might raise expectations that cannot be met eg the limited powers of the Parish Council on Planning issues.  We should focus on 'the burning issues' and what we could change.

In response to a query about the format of the questions [i.e. should they all be of the 'tick box' kind?] the Chair said that the questionnaire would not be able to give all the answers … we should aim for simplicity, using as many tick boxes as possible, but give people the opportunity to comment at the end.  We would want to use the results of the questionnaire to inform discussion of the action plan.

It was agreed that  an editorial group will revise the questions and produce a revision in questionnaire format [membership XXXXXX, XXXXX, XXXXX, XXXXXX, XXXXXX - consulting with sub-group leads]

Action: editorial sub-group and consultees to further develop the questions into a new draft for circulation to the whole group before the April meeting.

The Pilot
A pilot would involve around 20 people who have not been involved so far completing a revised draft questionnaire.  This should be as near 'final' as possible.  After amendments, the final questionnaire should go to service providers for their comments [e.g. the Police, Primary Care Trust].

Rural Partnership Seminar
A list of some of the possible sources of funding mentioned at the seminar [Report previously circulated] is now attached.  It was a very useful event.

Date and Time of Next Meeting
Monday 19th  April, 7.30 p.m.  
Village Hall, Main Street, Woodhouse Eaves

XXXXXXXX
Secretary to the Parish Plan Group

Parish Councils' Website: www.leicestershireparishcouncils.org 
Woodhouse Eaves website: www.woodhouse-eaves.co.uk