Village Design Statement Steering Committee

Steering Group Members present. William Du Croz, Annette Solt, Judy Stroud, Andy Crouch, Bob Davey, David Constant, Robert Brant. Attending: Andrew Harland, David Stroud, Peter Banbridge, Tan Cutler, Andrea McCormack, Mike Dixon, Steve Solt.

Welcome. Welcome to everyone from William and thanks to all for their continued efforts. Items 5 - 8 on the Agenda would be discussed ahead of item 4.

Apologies. Peter Crouch, Lindsey Reed, Jane Brant, Graham Yeatman, Karen Ure

Minutes of the last meeting held on 1 May: These were agreed.

5. Newsletter No. 3: William expressed his thanks to all for Newsletter No. 2 but particularly Robert and Annette for its production and for organising the distribution. Comments received have been very positive and encouraging. A third newsletter is planned for mid-September. It was agreed to produce it by 9 September, before the Heritage Open Days  (13 -16 September). Ideas for contents included the key points from the VDS first draft, and an article by Sian Bowdler and possibly a questioning view from a villager, plus advertising the events over the Heritage ()pen Days Weekend.

6. Events: 

Friday 13 September. Talk on the story Warmington Church by Bruce Bailey (Architectural historian) as part of Heritage Weekend. 

Beginning of October. Launch of draft Village Design Statement. (N.B. Provisional Date 3 October). Invite a guest speaker possibly from Ruddle Wilkinson. Invite a range of representatives from builders, architects, estate agents, Elton Estates, private sector planners and farmers i.e.: all who are involved in developments within Warmington Parish.  Possibly ask someone from a village where a VDS has been adopted by the planning authority to talk about its influences. Have displays available and refreshments. After the talk have a discussion centred around the draft VDS. The draft VDS would invite consultees to-respond to a series of questions. 

William thanked Steve for his excellent and well attended walk around the village and George Barker for his farm walk,

Sunday 14 July. Second walk led by George starting at Eaglethorpe. - ACTION. William to advise David Short and Elton Estates of the walk.

Saturday 6 July. School fete and Sports day. The display will be on show and questionnaires available. 

William thanked Chris Ellard and all who helped produce the display and questionnaires.

7. Fund-raising: Robert applied for an Awards For All grant only to find that the forms had changed 6 weeks earlier. He will apply again on the new forms but will not hear if  thee application has been successful until September. The Co-op will decide on funding from their grant scheme after 30 August. Local Heritage is being approached also. There is £168.80 in the account which is well short of the target. William asked Mike if he would approach the Parish Council to help with printing costs in September as an interim measure.

8. Future Timetable. This had been circulated with the agenda. There is a change of date for the December Parish Council Meeting. It will now be on Wednesday 4 December.

Andrew expressed his concern over the very tight schedule but the need to keep momentum going was appreciated too.

9. Towards the Preparation of the VDS. Comments had been received from several people on the Draft VDS. William thanked David (S) and Andrew for putting it together. There are several documents available, including some completed VDS from other villages which can give us ideas and assist us in the production on the final document. The Essex Design Guide is particularly recommended.

The timescale is very short given the approaching holiday season and the wish to have a first draft by the beginning of September.

Photos of specific aspects of the village/parish will be needed together with sketches of particular places and features. The Carpenter family, Chris Ellard and Chloe Furze could all be approached - ACTION Annette to ask Debbie Carpenter and Chloe.

Andrew was concerned that we had done good work raising the profile of the VDS and getting support form the village as a whole but that sufficient time would be needed to undertake the more rigorous process of producing the document.

It was felt that it is not necessary to follow the Countryside Commission framework for the document but that several themes needed to be included. To begin with an analysis of the areas of the village is required and any writing should be clear and concise so that planners and others can easily access the information without * being couched in flowery language. We need to be clear about what makes each area of the village different. The skill will be in producing a document with the right amount of detail, clearly expressed and acceptable to professionals involved in development and planning.

It was decided to have 6 sections to the VDS and four groups to begin drafting them.

Group 1. Buildings, Spaces, Settlement Pattern and: Character. Steve, Andrew, Mike and Lindsey (?).

Group 2. Village Context. David (C), Bob, Andy and Andrea (?) 

Group 3. Landscape Setting. David (S), Amy Boud, George(?. ) and John Wilkinson (.?). 

Group 4. Highways and Traffic. Important to include the County Council. More discussion to follow on this group. 

It was hoped that the groups could meet in the next two weeks and produce drafts by 23 July. William will come to each meeting and Steve, David (S) and David (C) will each cm ordinate their group. The aim is to circulate the drafts by 30 July for the next Steering: Group Meeting together with a list of photographs and drawings needed for each section. ACTION. William to ask Peter Moules if he has any aerial photos or knows someone with a micro-light who could take photos for us.

The aim for the text editing is mid-September with printing in late September. Steve may be able to engage a student at work to do the design.

10. Any Other Business. None

11. Date of next meeting. Tuesday 30 July at 8 pm. (Note change of time from previous meetings).