News from the Pre-steering Group

October 2021

The Pre-steering group has recently agreed a set of ‘Terms and Conditions’ with the Parish Council. This will govern how the full NDP Steering Group and its Support Group will operate under the aegis of the Parish Council. Full details are available on request to gmndplan@yahoo.com.

Preparation of NDPs costs money and several thousand pounds will be needed. To help raise funds we have, on behalf of the Parish Council, asked for financial help from the ‘Locality’ organisation to cover expected costs up to 31^st March 2022. The application has been successful. This paves the way for us to appoint a professional consultant to guide us through the preparation process. The grant will also allow us to commission a web site specifically for the NDP.

The inaugural meeting of the full Steering Group was held on 4^th October when the team responsible for preparing the Gayton and Gayton Thorpe Neighbourhood Development Plan explained how they went about things. This proved very instructive.

The Steering Group will meet again in early November to elect a small committee to run day-to-day affairs and to plan a first consultation with residents. The outcome is likely to be a questionnaire distributed to every household and posted online asking for views on the current state of the parish and hopes for the future. A strong and informative response is highly desirable. There also is likely to be a public meeting as a follow-up to the questionnaire.