Call to order
A meeting of the Management Group of Hoylake Vision Community Planning Forum was held at Arthur’s Restaurant on 15.11.23.
Attendees
Attendees: Mark Howard (MHo), Tom Hutchinson (TH), Jon Caswell (JC), Jon Morgan (JM), Alex Woods (AW), Nigel Blacow (NB), Maureen Hanson (MHa), Dan Levers (DL) (Guest)
Members not in attendance
Andrew Snell (AS), Jade Wright (JW)
Approval of minutes
The minutes of the October meeting were approved.
Management Group Meeting Reports
- Introduction to potential new management group member Dan Levers
Dan Levers had approached the management group expressing an interest in helping to develop the next NDP. He was welcomed to the meeting. Dan is a lifelong Hoylake resident and lives in Market Street. He is a Town Planner specialising in Urban Design, employed by a major consulting firm in Liverpool. He has a particular interest in how pedestrian access and safety within and around the town centre could be improved. His expertise and experience was considered very valuable and so he was invited to contribute to the rest of the meeting and accepted the offer to join the management group at the end of the meeting. - Re-designation delay and our response
MH reported that we had still not received notification of the start of statutory consultation and agreed to follow up again with the Forward Planning Officer.
- Local Plan Examination update
With the supportive presence of TH, MH had made a representation on Priority 5.51.8 and Policy 6.2 in reference to Carr Lane, in late October. Our representation had been successful insofar as the council agreed to amend the wording of Priority 5.51.8: Safeguard and enhance the industrial area at Carr Lane, Hoylake through physical improvements accompanied by a wider re-branding exercise to ensure that the Estate is transformed into an attractive, mixed-use employment destination for modern businesses and entrepreneurs, in line with theNeighbourhood Development Plan Objective 6, NDP Policies CL1 and CL2 and Wirral Local Plan Strategic Objective 11 and Policy WS 4.2(B). This means the NDP is now clearly referenced in the Local Plan. Tom Hutchinson was thanked for his work on this and other representations.
- Conservation Area Appraisals update
TH reported that the Draft appraisals were expected by Christmas and that progress had been good. The wider process had been very successful and the group were pleased to have been able to support the Conservation Area Committee in this way.
- Locality Funding update
It was agreed that JM would speak to Locality to seek their advice given the delayed redesignation process.
- Membership update
NB reported that there had been a small number of new members and that membershipo now stood at 215.
- Report on meeting with Head of Law
MH and TH had met with the council’s Head of Law Jill Travers (JT) and Deputy Chief Executive David Ball (DB) on 12.10.23 to discuss how a more positive dialogue with Ward Councillors could be fostered. It was made clear that Vision have always hoped for a non-adversarial working relationship with ward councillors but that this had been difficult to achieve. We would send an invitation to Cllr Max Booth to attend a future meeting. Frustration with the approach of two ward councillors to Localism generally and more specifically the Hoylake NDP was discussed; as well as concerns about potentially misleading information being shared by ward councillors on social media which we will continue to challenge and correct wherever it appears with factual responses. However the Head of Law made clear that officers are unable to act unless a formal complaint is made; councillors are entitled to express their views on national planning policy and legislation, just as we are entitled to correct misinformation. MH made it clear that a formal complaint would likely be unhelpful and that we would continue to seek ways of improving the situation, initially by developing the dialogue with Cllr Booth that has begun at the 2023 AGM in September.
- Social Media and PR plan update
TH reported that Facebook use had been broadly positive and helpful despite some challenging interactions based on misinformation. The interaction and timings between PR and social media posts was important to get right. JC and JW had not had an opoportunity to meet but would discuss a PR plan and bring a one page summary plan to the next meeting; we should be using hyperlocal media (eg West Kirby Today; The Lake) a lot more. MH stated that e-newsletters were very time consuming and responses, although click rates were good. The group agreed that while e-newsletters are important for members, evidence suggests they are not considered the most productive use of valuable limited time. The delays to the Local Plan and redesignation have made communications difficult as we are unable to be absolutely clear about the NDP direction until the Local Plan is published and so there is little to report on at present; momentum has been lost but will be regained once this happens.
- Schools and public engagement ideas
AW and MHa had not had time to follow up on earlier ideas as a result of personal commitments. It was agreed to look again at this in the New Year.
- Sports Village updates
AS had been making further progress and would continue to pursue, Public support continues to be evident and there was growing support from local sports organisations. He would report back at the next meeting.
- AOB
- No AOB was raised
Provisional date of next meeting Weds 12 December 2023
