Progress update from the Steering Group Chairman
(also available to view or download here as a PDF)

Steering Group Activity

This newsletter is to update you on the progress with the development of the Neighbourhood Development plan. The Mylor Parish Council was briefed on NDP progress at their last meeting and also approved the Terms of Reference for the steering group. This gave us the green light to go ahead with the election of the remaining members of the steering group which we did at a public meeting on 12th September.

The meeting was well attended and I am pleased to report that we filled all of the remaining seven steering group roles. We know that other NDP groups in the area have had no little difficulty in achieving this level of support so I am very grateful to those who have committed their time and expertise to help with this important project. Regrettably, and after due consideration, one of the elected members decided that, because of his specialist skills in land development, there could be a perceived conflict of interest. He therefore withdrew as a steering group lead. I respect his decision, but an essential part of the plan development does need expert knowledge in this area and I am grateful that he has offered to support the group as an independent advisor.

To ensure that we are absolutely transparent in all respects we will compile a register of interests for all the steering group leaders which will be made available to you. I would like to stress at this stage that the NDP is not a concoction of the steering group; quite the contrary, it will be a plan based on the consensus of opinion within our community. The steering group will gather that opinion through communication and consultation with you and will then draft the appropriate policies. The final decision will also be yours as we will offer the plan, after independent inspection, for a community referendum.

Once the plan is adopted it becomes part of planning law and is the first point of reference by the Council planning officials. Without the plan the Council planning officers are free to make decisions based on their interpretation of the planning laws so it is vital that we get your community vision translated into policy.

We will expand our communications processes very soon and our communications team are well advanced with the establishment of a website. The URL will be mylorflushingplan.uk. It will be embryonic initially but will build as we have more content to show you.

We plan to run an online survey in the near future which will rapidly provide the information and statistics which we will need to formulate the policies for the plan.

We are very aware that not all parishioners choose or wish to use e-media for communication so there will be conventional paper based updates and a parallel survey to the online version as well. We hope this will be a relatively small number as e-media is so much more efficient and cost effective. Cost is a major consideration for us as we have only a small budget to complete all the work.

I will follow up with regular updates as development of the plan progresses

Regards

Steve Solomon

Chairman