MISERDEN PARISH COUNCIL
WINE AND CHEESE EVENING
Held at Miserden Village Hall on Wednesday 2nd June 2004
It was very encouraging to see so many members of the Parish present. 42 people signed our Visitors Book, but we were aware that there were several more people present.
At 7.30 Martin Ractliffe – Parish Council Chairman, welcomed everyone, explained a little of what the Parish Plan is about – introducing Angela Burlow from Gloucestershire Rural Community council as our guest speaker.
Angela Burlow – Introduced the Parish Plan as being part of a Government initiative to help communities be sustainable and to ‘stay alive’. The Parish Plan can cover whatever the people of the parish feel is needed in their area.
Many ideas were brought forward:
Village Shop & Post Office – Council tax rebate, it is still legally possible to continue to use Pension Books, local people can lobby to help protect this service.
Benefit of Parish Plan? – Sustainability of Parishes. Enabling Parish Council to have an input with the Highways Dept. Local Education Authorities, Planning Depts, and Housing Depts.
Format of Parish Plan? – It can be whatever the people of the Parish need it to be. The need to go into the communities and obtain views and ideas. Painswick have completed their Plan in a glossy format. Coaley Parish Council are at the pre-publication stage. There is no right or wrong way of presenting this.
Highways – areas of concern for each settlement could be written on a board.
Broadband – lobby for the rapid introduction of this to encourage small businesses to come to this area.
Play area – for The Camp, Possibility of some land to purchase from the estate of Dan Symonds. Skateboard Park in Parish. Cricket field.
Youth Club – transport could be laid on to transport youth to the nearest Club.
Disco/youth Group for 12-16 yrs. – funding required to start up a Disco to encourage the youth to come along then gradually introduce other activities. Funding for training a Youth Worker.
Questionnaire – What is needed, what is wanted, what to promote, what is brilliant about living here? – Identify things we most value about living here and how they can be preserved and developed. Note the features that are lacking or need improvement and organise to apply pressure for changes to take place. – GRCC can help by designing the Questionnaire in a professional manner.
Affordable housing in the Parish – Housing needs survey – contact GRCC Housing Enabler.
Parish Directory – List of people with skills in the Parish.
Welcoming Pack for newcomers.
Links to all settlements in the Parish – by Footpath Bridleway and cycle track.
Sheltered Housing for the elderly – enabling them to remain among lifelong friends.
Parish Maintenance Person – for Hedges, ditches footpaths etc. – possibly in partnership with GCC.
Minibus owned by the Parish.
Childminder register for the parish.
Change of name of Parish Council to include the other communities so they feel part of it and that it is not the Church Parish. Possibly a competition for suggestions.
A Parish Boundary Walk – possibly an annual event. An up to date map would need to be acquired.
A Wind Farm somewhere in the Parish.
Following on from these suggestions a Working Group will need to be set up to go forward with the Parish Plan if volunteers can be found and funding can be obtained for this project. Several of the suggestions could be implemented with funding from other sources.
The general feedback has so far been very positive – many people from the parish saying how pleased they were to have come along. They felt it was a good effort by the Parish Council to try and bring this very diverse parish together and hope that something may come of the ideas put forward.