Charfield Neighbourhood Plan

Progress meeting for CNP team this evening in the Sportsman’s Lounge.

CNP team progress meeting this evening at Churchend.

Earlier today the CNP team met with the South Gloucestershire Council planning policy manager to go through some of the initial questions raised by the community event. It was a largely successful meeting and despite some concerns about the progress in reviewing the Local plan (with which the Neighbourhood plan has to align) we’re comfortable to continue.

Yesterday and today the CNP team have been pouring over the post-it pad comments you provided at the wine and cheese evening. There are clear topics developing in the coloured piles, and it seems we will have little problem in determining what matters most to the residents of Charfield. These topics will drive the themes in the survey which will be compiled, tested, approved and eventually will find it’s way to your letterbox in the autumn.

Well, you never do know how things will turn out, and as we approached the Wine and Cheese Community Event on the 26th April we pondered on how many tables to put out. Too many and it would look empty and unsupported, too few and folk might not stay. What to do… So we went with six tables of ten or twelve seats.

We immediately realised we’d need more tables, more seats! Well over eighty Charfielders turned out, and we expanded into the bar area. The interaction was tremendous, and we’ve got a lot of data to analyse.

The evening started with an explanation of our intention, what Neighbourhood Plans were and why a Plan for Charfield was the best way to address the potential of further development. The wine and cheese were very well received, and it broke the ice, if ice there was to break, because everyone got along and got stuck into the discussions.

The facilitators did a fantastic job of keeping the conversations on-topic, and we’ve come away with information that will guide the next stages in our development of the Neighbourhood Plan. Those next stages will be clarified in time, but for now we are all heads-down and going through the hundreds of post-it pad comments, charts and tick-sheets.

Thank you, Charfield.