Village Design Statement Steering Committee

Steering Group Members Present: David Constant (Chair), Annette Solt, Bob Davey, Judy Stroud, Graham Yeatman.

Attending: Penny Morgan, David Stroud, Andrea McCormack, David Edsall, Derek Thomas, Mike Dixon, Steve Solt.

1. Welcome. David (C) welcomed everyone to the meeting and thanked them for attending.

2. Apologies: William Du Croz, Peter Crouch, Andy Crouch, Lindsey Reed, Jane Brant, Robert Brant, Karen Ure.

3. Minutes of the last meeting held on 4 July. There was one amendment to Item 7 - Fundraising William asked Mike if he would approach the Parish Council to help with printing costs in September as an interim measure. change to The Steering Group agreed to ask the Parish Council if it would agree to a bridging loan to help wit* printing costs. This amendment was agreed and the minutes accepted.

4. Towards the preparation of the VDS - Stage II

4.1. Consideration of the First drafts:

Buildings, Spaces, Settlement and Character

Village Context

Landscape Setting

Only 'The Village Context' had been drafted and circulated before the meeting The main comments on this were:

• Refer to the school as 'the Lower School'
• Expand historical setting to include pre-medieval.
• Limited Development Village is a category unlikely to exist in next Local Plan
• Add in short summary of those living in village and economic context - not just a dormitory village but has good cross-section of people many who work locally. 
• Add in that Church is centre of a Benefice of 5 parishes.
• The social and economic mix lends support to the diverse clubs and leisure activities.
• Add in the changes in village over the last 50 years or so. Developments of Acremead, Chapel Street, Pierce Crescent and now Nene Pastures - all very different but add to diversity and support for range of activities in the village.
• Also need a section of what is wanted in the future to follow on from this section.
• Need to emphasise the scope of village life and events. Take e.g 2001 and list events and new ventures e.g. Youth Club/Orchestra, Leisure Field.

The group decided to meet again and develop the points raised, expanding to about two sides.

Buildings, Spaces, Settlement & Character. Steve has written most of this and circulated some copies at the meeting.

Landscape Setting. David (S) will produce a draft in next two weeks.

Highways and Traffic. No group had been appointed to draft this section at the last meeting Graham offered to draft this section and get help from others.

It was agreed that drafts of all four sections would be sent to William by 15 August. William would be asked to circulate these as necessary.

Where possible it would be helpful to note in the text of sections yet to be written where an illustration would 'paint a thousand words' so that photos and drawings can be put together. As well as general village scene photos illustrations of 'bad design' need to be taken from other villages in Northants - guided by text

4.2. The next stage.

An Editorial Board consisting initially of William, David (C), and Graham was agreed. The collection of published VDSs will be circulated to the conveners of the four groups after the meeting so that everyone can get a better idea of the best sections. There is a need for a section about Warmington in the future. There was also a feeling that some bold statements should be made about the principles of design. A rule could be 'respect the context'. As the document is aimed at developers and planners it should be technical but easily readable with illustrations of main points.

Heritage Weekend 13 - 16 Sept. A new exhibition will be needed based on the four draft sections. A new questionnaire with fewer 'leading question' also needs to be prepared. It was felt that there should be sufficient time for the editorial team and supporters to put these together once the drafts are completed on 15 August.

5. Timetable: It was generally felt that there was insufficient time in the present timetable to complete the drafts to a satisfactory standard, especially as it was the main holiday season. It was agreed to put the post Heritage Weekend timetable back by one month to allow for a quality product to be achieved. It was acknowledged that we do need to keep up the momentum but as the Local Plan timetable has slipped considerably there is not quite the same urgency.

6. Launch of draft VDS for public consultation. It was agreed that Sir William Proby should be invited as the guest speaker. He should be the first speaker not second in the programme. A new date needs to be agreed with sufficient time to prepare a 'professional' document and exhibition to match.

7. Fundraising. Robert is still working on the main grant applications.

8. Any Other Business. Steve asked if there were sufficient funds to buy a digital OS map so that overlays of different areas of the village could be superimposed. It would be a very useful tool and could be used in the final document as well This was agreed in principle.

9. Date of next meeting. 3 October.