Hello again
This week’s edition a little different than usual – actually it’s quite a lot different! Up to now you’ve patiently ‘listened’ to me providing updates each week. But we’re now at the stage where Steering Group subgroups are documenting thoughts & ideas for the Plan. And we need your input to help shape/refine these ideas. Which means less from me this week..
- So, firstly……. some snippets
- Heritage & Landscape workshop was held on Thursday. This was run by our consultants AECOM as part of their overall assessment they are producing for us. The workshop was very positive, and they took away lots of ideas we gave them about what we believe is valuable in our area. We look forward to their report in early September.
- SG Plan workshop was also held last Thursday. This replaced our normal monthly meeting (due to peak holiday commitments) so a subset of the full Group met to discuss and agree the overall shape and structure of our Plan. We agreed to use the Thame Town Council Plan as our blueprint as it was well received by the examiners when first published for its effective style and ‘readability’. Here’s a link to the Thame Plan – please have a look and let us know your thoughts on the look/feel.
- We received a welcome donation from Cllr Richard Jackson – one of our county councillors. This donation (allied to an earlier donation from Cllr Eric Kerry) will be put to good use to help us run some consultation sessions. We are grateful to both for their ongoing support of our activities.
- And finally…..your Housing subgroup needs you!…
- … to comment on the Position Paper that Mark and his team have put together outlining our current thoughts about new housing in our area
- Mark sets out the context for the Paper, along with some key ‘asks’ we want you to consider, in his post below.
- The paper (follow the link to the document) summarises the key considerations for new housing in the area. It contains details of the feedback from the consultations we held last spring as well as providing the statistics we need to justify our ideas going forward
- But this is a positioning paper, so it doesn’t contain firm policies – that will be the next stage, once you have had the chance to review and comment.
- Please, please, please take the time to have a look at the Paper and provide comments, either directly to Mark via email or online. Both options are explained at the end of his post.
You will see more of these requests over the coming weeks as the other strands formulate their ideas. But housing is a ‘biggie’ and your views are crucial. We need to know we are properly capturing and reflecting your views.
This week’s edition marks another ‘first’ for us. The first time we’ve tried to bring together 2 separate posts into one e-newsletter, so fingers crossed it works okay and Mark’s post follows this one.
Kind regards
Graham