LINTON PARISH COUNCIL

Bromsash Gorsley and Linton

Minutes Of The Extraordinary Meeting Held On January 8^th 2002

In Linton Village Hall At 7:30 p.m.

Present:

Cllr Richard Smith , Chairman

Cllr Jean Foley, Vice Chairman

Cllr Audrey Duke

Cllr John Foley

Cllr Phil Page

Cllr Jim Stewart

Brian Atherton (Clerk)

7 Parishioners attended.

Minute Item			Action
1		Apologies
	1.1	Cllr Gordon Martin and Cllr Gloria Pay

2		Planning
	2.1	SE2001/3286/F Proposed carport, garage and conversion of outbuildings to residential use including alterations to covered area. The Post House, Gorsley, HR9 7SJ. Council supported the application subject to the hedge adjoining Springdale not being reduced in height or thickness. Council noted, with regret, the timing of the application.	The Clerk

3		Parish Plan
	3.1	The Chairman reminded Councillors of the sequence of events leading up to the present position. In summary: The Government proposes a greater involvement by Parish Councils, for which funds will be made available. For this, a council has to become a Quality Council. There has to be a Parish Plan, produced in the closest possible consultation with the parishioners. To produce a Parish Plan, there has first to be a questionnaire. There must also be an annual report, from the Council, to the parishioners. Subsequent discussion, where appropriate involving parishioners present, lasted some 80 minutes, following which, the following resolutions were made:
	3.1.1	Proposed by Cllr Richard Smith, Seconded by Cllr Jean Foley and approved unanimously, IT WAS AGREED that the management and direction be done in house.	Cllr Richard Smith
	3.1.2	Proposed by Cllr Richard Smith, Seconded by Cllr Jim Stewart and approved unanimously, IT WAS AGREED that questionnaires would be delivered and collected by hand.
	3.1.3	Proposed by Cllr Richard Smith, Seconded by Cllr Jim Stewart and approved unanimously, IT WAS AGREED that we use its own resources to write the resulting plan.

3.1.4	Proposed by Cllr Richard Smith, Seconded by Cllr Jim Stewart and approved unanimously, IT WAS AGREED that the first draft budget (amended copy attached) be used as the basis of the grant application.	Cllr Richard Smith/The Clerk
3.1.5	It was then decided to make formal application, through The Countryside Agency’s Liaison Officer.	Cllr Richard Smith/The Clerk

4		Other Thoughts and Actions
	4.1	Expert advice will be needed on the computer hardware and software required for the sophisticated analysis of questionnaire responses.
	4.2	It was accepted that we might have to pay for a sociology undergraduate or other person(s) who would be capable of statistically analysing the data and producing a draft report.
	4.3	Councillors were asked to contribute to the schedule of groups etc. to be consulted by the Council in working up a questionnaire and pass these contributions to the clerk.	All Councillors
	4.4	The Chairman and the Clerk will draft a formal annual report, for consideration at the regular February Council meeting and finalisation at the March meeting.	Cllr Richard Smith/The Clerk
	4.5	It was decided that further separate extraordinary meetings would be necessary, dates and times to be discussed at the next Council meeting.
		The Meeting closed at 9:40 p.m.

LINTON PARISH COUNCIL PLAN: FIRST DRAFT BUDGET

Notes	Heading	£
1	Management	-
1	Secretarial assistance	-
1	PC hardware & software	-
2	Postage	100.00
	Stationery & PC consumables	250.00
	Training [5 people @ £100]	500.00
	Printing:
3	Questionnaires	1,500.00
	Inserts [700 single sheets, black & white, back to back]	50.00
	Envelopes out [450 preprinted]	150.00
	Envelopes back [450 preprinted]	150.00
	Parish Plan	750.00
	Miscellaneous expenses:
1	Petrol	100.00
	Telephone calls	100.00
1,4,5	Data entry and analysis software	250.00
	Data entry expenses	100.00
5,6	Data analysis expenses	250.00
	Contingencies	750.00
		5,000.00

Notes. Questions and Assumptions

1. Assumed to be done in house at no cost other than for expenses.
2. Assumes questionnaires delivered and collected by hand.
3. Say 450 x 24 colour pages, printed back to back, centre stapled. Collected.
4. The current programme assumes this task would take 12 weeks.

· A major factor is whether data could be entered to disk for central correlation.

· If 600 responses' data were entered at, say, 4 questionnaires per person per day with, say, 4 people each working 4 days per week, it would all take 10 Weeks in total.

· If not in house (eg if decentralised data entry is impracticable), would it be feasible to give the task to College IT students?

· Assumes suitable hardware available at no cost. Software provision very speculative.

6. Data analysis etc by a sociology undergraduate?? Or in house??