Chairman's Report to AGM 2011
Bob Ayer – Chairman
Terena Plowright – Vice Chairman
Gary Butler – Treasurer
Amanda Greenlee – Hon Secretary
Nick Keith – Public Relations Officer
Hilary Ayer
Tracy Chandler
Vincent Edberg
Peter Marshall – PTC Rep
Graham Steaggles
Tony Struthers
The Management Committee has met 7 times since our last AGM in March 2011. The challenges are: to respond to the key issues identified by our original public consultation and to deliver the outcomes that address these issues; and to realise the new community priorities agreed at the last AGM: adaptation to Climate Change; a Biodiversity Action Plan for Petersfield and a Community Garden.
Our Project Groups work on specific issues. The groups are very small – sometimes only a single person. The Groups report progress to the Management Committee.
The Town Design Statement (TDS) is P2M’s major project achievement to date. Changes resulting from further public consultation were agreed in July 2010; Navigate Design were contracted to design and make the published version and after editorial changes the final document was published in October 2010. Vincent and his team deserve huge credit for this work, which will stand the Town in good stead for many years to come.
The intention remains for the TDS to be adopted as a Supplementary Planning Document that has sufficient weight to influence the future development of Petersfield.
The Hidden Britain Group, with very strong support from James Turner of Hidden Britain South East, obtained external funding from Colabor8 and EHDC to deliver 5 projects namely town branding, map boards, map pads, tourist leaflet, the tourist web site visitpetersfield.com. Local companies were contracted to deliver these projects. A 6th project, road and pedestrian signage within and without the Town, achieved the requirements specification stage, which was delivered to the Town, District and County Councils for implementation.
A submission was made for an award for the work of the group in the Business & Economic category of the South East Rural Towns Partnership. Although not winners this increased our profile and was well regarded.
Transport, Movement & Public Realm – Graham Steaggles
This group has replaced the previous Local Transport group. It is a small sharp team that is working with HCC in particular to progress the movement recommendations from the TDS and to influence what was the Town Access Plan and is now the District Access Plan. HCC have agreed that the Group can support this project by gathering information and identifying issues. The group have walked the Town Centre with HCC Officers to highlight key issues.
The Greening Campaign continue to promote the Adaptation Toolkit at both Local and National levels. A conference on the Community Adaptation Toolkit was held in London in July 2010 at the QEII Conference Centre. An introductory event was held at St Peters Hall. The Campaign was granted a reception at the House of Commons in June 2011. A meeting was held with the Chief Executive of the Wildlife Trust at Oxford University.
The BAP team settled on the name ‘Petersfield Nature’. It has produced a leaflet and questionnaire and is working with local schools – this required us to put a Child Protection Policy in place. Detailed information has been obtained from the Hampshire Biodiversity Information Centre (HBIC). The BAP group includes experts and meets regularly.
This Greening Petersfield group explored the opportunity to achieve a community garden on the Water Meadows (Tesco) and concluded that there were too many risks to proceed. The group are currently following up an opportunity to create a Community Garden and Orchard on the outskirts of the Town.
Greening Petersfield have promoted local produce at the Farmers Markets by the means of costed recipes. Sue Edberg brought her on-going work to a meeting of the Management Committee in June 2011. The Committee were impressed.
P2M were asked to front the very successful SDNP launch event on 1st April 2011. The event resulted in National media coverage, was very well attended and enjoyed by many. Your Chairman was kept very busy for a while with road closures, risk assessments, public liability insurance, funding applications, (and subsequent project monitoring). Navigate Design did great professional work including obtaining funding from Colabor8 and the Chamber of Commerce to provide the very large map of the SDNP. Lucy Soal and other members of the EHDC Community Team filled the Square with stalls and activities relevant to the Park.
The large map is in our ownership and available for general use within the Park.
At the request of the SDNP we have contributed to The Petersfield Plan consultation by representation on both its Steering & Project Groups and participation in its 2 Workshops.
We were encouraged to make a bid for SEEDA funding for a project for improvements to Lavant Street. Our application was well received and it is likely that we will achieve funding of £7,500 plus some £23,500 of matched funding. We have to deliver the SEEDA part by 6th February 2011.
The decision was made to become full Town Members of Action for Market Towns (AMT) not least to provide cover for our members but also to create wider opportunities for the Town.
We maintain 3 web sites:
www.petersfieldtomorrow.co.uk - the Town Partnership’s site
http://petersfield.pbworks.com - the ‘wiki’ used by the Town Character Group to share work on and give visibility to the Town Design Statement
www.visitpetersfield.com - which includes a Virtual Tour of the Town. I have worked hard to improve the Search Engine Optimisation of this site and the evidence from the recent incorporation of Google Analytics is encouraging.
In the context of our public mandate to make more use of The Square we have allowed our Premises Licence to be used for Events such as the Summer Festivities. We are considering a review of the licence to ensure that it covers all likely licensable activities.
Our active membership has diminished partly as a consequence of having completed significant projects.
We believe that now is the time for the Partnership to embark on new initiatives that have support of the Town and to recruit the volunteers needed to see these initiatives brought to a successful conclusion.
The Committee decided that we are not yet ready to initiate this and is minded to do so at a public meeting next March.
Bob Ayer 10 October 2011