Report of first Steering Committe meeting held on Tuesday 30th May

This was a lively meeting with much enthusiasm from all members for the task of obtaining village opinion and compiling a Parish Plan, the aim of which is to provide the Parish Council with informed guidance on what it should do to maintain, improve or change the aspects of life in Balcombe which residents feel are important.

Chairman Rodney Saunders was clear that the first objective will be to obtain reponses to the questionnaire that is being produced from 60% of the households within the village; he felt that anything less would mean the committee had failed in its job. Rodney said the 20 % response in Lindfield, although meeting the requirements of that village plan committee was, in his view, woefully inadequate.

The four Working Groups, representing Traffic, Safety and Security, Housing and Environment, and Facilities and Amenities, each reported on the initial meetings and/or discussions they had held to try to establish the questionnaire topics to include in each of their categories.

After hearing these, the committee drew up a timetable leading up to the production of the Parish Plan, which they would aim to keep to.

It is as follows:

End of July for questionnaire to be completed;

Printing during August;

Distribute during the first week of September;

Third week of September deadline for questionnaire to be returned;

Creation of a database for analysis by first week of October;

Completion of analysis by end of October (three weeks);

Report and Draft Parish Plan completed by end of November;

Delivery to Parish Council for discussion/approval at its December meeting.

Members of the committee also agreed to prepare a stand to have at the Village Fete on July I in order to advertise the Parish Plan process and to continue to make people aware of its development and the need for their involvement.

The committee was told that a £2,000 budget had been earmarked by the Parish Council for the work the committee was delegated to do. The Parish Council had already spent £500 on the exhibition in February, which had gained village approval for the process proper to begin.

At the end of the meeting vice-chairman Norman Howard delivered some interesting statistics about Balcombe gained from the West Sussex County Council website, as follows:

At the last 2001 survey the population of Balcombe was 1,765 individuals made up of 687 households.

The economically active members of the population amounted to 837 individuals.

Grouped by age, the population was made up as follows:

0-4yrs 5.4%

5-9yrs 7.0%

10-14 yrs 6.6%

15-19yrs 7.8%

20-29yrs 7.9%

30-44yrs 21.6%

45-59yrs 20.0%

60-74yrs 14.2%

75+yrs 9.4%

The next meeting of the committee will be on Tuesday 27th June.