Bulmer Village Appraisal


The First Report is released 25th July 2003 Steering Group Meeting 6 January 2002
Steering Grp Mtg 1st July 2003 Steering Group Meeting 6 January 2002
Steering Grp Mtg 14th Aug.2002 Steering Group Meeting 6 January 2002
Steering Grp Mtg 16th Jan. 2002 Steering Group Meeting 6 January 2002
Steering Grp Mtg 17th Oct.2001 Steering Group Meeting 17th October 2001
Village meeting 21st Sept. 2001 Village Mtg is held
Appraisal Launch The Appraisal process is launched

click on the image above to read the first summary report

The first summary report is released, to view it click on the village sign above.
Please note you will need Adobe Acrobat as this is a .PDF file.
If you wish to download a free copy of Acrobat, click on the Adobe sign above.

You can also obtain a copy from the Post Office in Bulmer Street,

or by call me on 378155.

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VDS

 

 

Bulmer Appraisal Group

Minutes of the Meeting held in the Village Hall
Tuesday 1st July 2003

Present : Alan Skipper, Mike Crome, Richard Tomlinson, Roger James, Peter DeNayer, and Ken Mills

1 Apologies
Noel Owen, Ted Wood. Accordingly, Ken Mills to take minutes for this meeting.

2 Previous meeting held 27th May 2003
The minutes were amended and then signed as being correct.

3 Matters arising from the minutes
None

4 Final draft of the preliminary report
Mike Crome had obtained the report from Noel and distributed copies in black & white, and tabled one copy with photographs in colour. He had obtained a costing from a Sudbury print shop for the production of 100 copies in colour, spirally bound with face and back acetate covers. This cost was approximately £300; this is in excess of the funds currently available. Mike Crome is to obtain a hopefully more favourable costing via family connections and report accordingly.

It was decided to await the next quote. If this is beyond the Group's means then to ask the Parish Council to fund the printing of a colour report. If the answer is negative to then print in black & white. As the next Council meeting is 11th July it would be likely that some colour and/or B&W versions would need to be individually printed for the AGM meeting and presentation on 25th July.

Selected aspects of the report were discussed; in particular the extent to which the database might be made available to the public. It was agreed that the wording in the report needed to be improved in this respect. Mike Crome to re-word. The report does not clearly indicate the way forward following its publication. Roger James to re-draft relevant paragraph.

All present are requested to proof read the report and make comments back to Mike Crome.

5 Agenda items for the AGM on Friday 25th July
These were agreed as Chairman's Report, Accounts and Treasurer's Report, Election of Committee, Presentation of Report, Questions & Discussion, Future Action.
The meeting has been advertised in What's On; Mike Crome will set up on web-site and put posters on the notice-boards. There will be no flyers produced.

6 Any other business
Ken Mills reported that funds were less than £150. Richard Tomlinson confirmed that no payment has yet been made for the hire of the Village Hall. Richard Tomlinson is to determine what postage expenses were still outstanding. Richard is also to invite Jan Cole to the AGM presentation meeting.

7 Date of next meeting
This will be in the Autumn after the AGM.

This meeting closed at 9.07 p.m.

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Bulmer Appraisal Group

The Minutes of the Bulmer Appraisal Group Held in the Village Hall at 8.00 pm
On Wednesday the 14th August 2002


The following Members were present:— R Tomlinson Chairman; E Wood, Secretary; K Mills, Treasurer:
M Crome. A Skipper. K Cant A Burbidge, P Owen. P Denayer

Item 1. The chairman signed the previous minutes as a true record.

Item 2. A discussion about the form and method of presenting the prizes for the winning tickets in the appraisal draw took place. It was noted that 201 forms out of 249 had been completed, or partially completed, out of 249 distributed. No returns had been received from the village school.
Decision:-

a. 1st prize would be a £100 2nd Prize would be £50
c. The prizes had to be claimed by the 30th September 2002.
d. If not claimed the numbers would be redrawn at a suitable village function as soon as possible after the 30th September.
e. The winning numbers would be advertised upon the Bulmer website and in ‘What’s On’
f. Prizes had to be claimed from Richard Tomlinson who would then present the prizes.

Item 3. The Prize Draw was made. The winning numbers were:

1st 185
2nd 51


Item 4. Detailed discussion about the method of analysing the answers obtained from the completed questionnaires followed. Mike Crome stated that he was happy to put the data on to his computer but did not wish to be responsible for analysing the results. To obtain the correct information from the computer required a person to analyse each question in turn. It was suggested by Alan Skipper that the completed questionnaires should be sent to an outside analyst.

Decision:-

a. Mike Crome would enter the responses into his computer database with assistance from Chris Massey and Steve Davies.

b. Ken Mills would devise the designs of spread sheets to provide tables of collated responses for all questions. Mike Crome would interrogate his database to obtain the figures for these tables.

c. The subcommittees who devised the questions for the appraisal would then reconvene to review and interpret the tabled results. They would determine what conclusions could be drawn and decide whether further questions needed to be asked of the database relating to their particular fields of the questionnaire.

d. Once the conclusions and summary results from the subcommittees were available, they would he converted into a report by the Report writers and a presentation of the results would be made to the Parish Council and villagers at a suitable date and time.

Item 4. The cost of the printing of the questionnaires had been paid by the Parish Council and the sum £272 needed to be repaid to them.

Decision: Ken Mills to draw a cheque to pay this amount to the Parish Council.

Item 5. A discussion took place with reference to the questionnaire to be answered by the Bulmer children at the school. The Chairman reported he had not vet heard from Ron Murray the headmaster. He would speak to him when the school reopened after the summer holiday. Kim Cant said she was prepared to hold a gathering of the children at her home to ascertain their views if necessary.

There being no other business the meeting was closed.

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The Minutes of the Bulmer Appraisal Group Held in the Village Hall at 8:00pm
On Wednesday 16th January 2002


The following members were present:-

Chairman- R Tomlinson, F Wood, M Crome, A Skipper, J Wright, S Davies, C Massey, K Mills, A Burbidge, K Goodchild, J Rowe and S Harris and P Owen

Item 1. The chairman asked that the previous minutes should be accepted by the meeting. Proposed by M Crome and seconded by K Mills.

Decision:- It was agreed that they were a true account of the meeting.

Item 2. Matters arising. The meeting felt that it would be beneficial to have the minutes distributed to all committee members as quickly as possible after the meeting.

Decision:- The secretary agreed to do this in the future.

Item 3. Grant Applications. The Chairman said that so far the only application for funding that had been sent was that for the Rural Community Council of Essex. This was for a grant of £500 pounds. At present no approach had been made to anyone to act as a referee, however the chairman assured everyone that he would be dealing with the matter in the very near future.

Decision:- The Chairman would approach Ron Murray from the school and if he agreed, would then process further grant applications.

Item 4. Allen Burbidge gave the meeting a very comprehensive briefing on the techniques of conducting a brain storming session and set the meeting off into a great deal of discussion about the perceived problems within the Bulmer area. These he covered in five main group headings-

a. Security.
b. Environment.
c. Housing.
d. Leisure.
e. Miscellaneous.


All present were invited to contribute their own thoughts on problem areas. Several members came up with similar ideas and these were arranged into packages so that each problem could be assessed and given an order of priority.

Decision:- Alan was asked to analyse the inputs from the committee and to distribute the results to committee members as soon as they were ready.

Item 5. Ken Mills pointed out that he felt that two main aspects of village life had been overlooked by those present and that they were probably the most important aspects that effect village life. They were the Church and the Village School. Further discussion followed and the view that when the questionnaire was finally printed ready for distribution it must allow all the residents the option of raising their own grievances and highlighting what each individual felt needed dealing with. This was especially important that all age groups were able to express their views.

Decision:- It was agreed that the above -points were very relevant to the questionnaire and that some form of recording the age groups of all the members of each household must be devised.

Item 6. The chairman summarised the proceeding of the previous two items and asked the following to chair sub committees to start to put together a bank of questions under the following main headings

a. Security - Mike Crome
b. Environment -Peter Owen
c. Housing - Jeff Wright
d. Leisure - Ken Mills


Decision:- It was agreed that the above should chair the sub committees and that they should hold their meetings within the next five weeks and report back to the main committee at its next meeting. It was also agreed that the secretary should allocate names to each sub committee. (Please see attached sheet)

Item 7. The view was expressed that it would be helpful if other appraisal groups were invited to attend some of the Bulmer meetings so that any problems that other groups had experienced could be highlighted. It would also be helpful if Jan Cole could attend future meetings.

Decision :- It was agreed that Simon Harris should approach his colleague who was on the Coggeshall committee and invite him to attend our next meeting. The secretary was to contact Jan Cole and invite her to attend the next meeting.

Item 8. The Chairman summarised the discussion from items 6 and 7 and stated that the way forward was to get the questionnaire up and running in the time scale that had already been outlined. It was up to all members of the committee to ensure that the phrasing of questions enabled the correct conclusions to be drawn from the completed questionnaires.

He thanked Allen Burbidge for the very comprehensive way in which he had introduced and steered the committee through the evening and awaited the results of analysis with interest.

The next meeting will be held on Tuesday 26 February in the Village Hall at 8:00pm.

There being no further business the meeting adjourned at 9:15pm.

QUESTIONNAIRE SUBCOMMITTEE MEMBERS

SECURITY

Mike Crome, Chris Massey, Alan Skipper and Peter Denayer

ENVIRONMENT

Peter Owen, Noel Owen, Simon Harris and Jane Rowe

HOUSING

Jeff Wright, Allen Burbidge and Roger James

LEISURE

Ken Mills, Kim Cant and Steve Davies



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Steering Group Meeting - 17th Oct. 2001

The Steering Group of 14 volunteers (see next edition of What's On for their names) met for the first time and elected their Chairman, Secretary and Treasurer. It was agreed two grants should be applied for, one from RCCE and the Awards for All from the National Lottery fund.

The Appraisal is to consist of about 40 questions and would target all age groups of the Village (including children). The survey will be distributed to each household probably not until May 2002. This to allow time for the questions to be set and agreed and for the process of distribution to be carried out in day light. The areas suggested to cover areas raised in the mini surveys are Traffic/Parking, Upkeep of Verges & Open spaces, Local Amenities, and Village helpers.

The grants will be used for costs of stationery and printing of the final Action report and to offer a prize(s) for questionnaire's being completed.

The group is to meet again on the 4th December to start the process of agreeing in more detail of the subjects to covered in the survey.

If you have any questions regarding the Appraisal then please do not hesitate to contact me by going to 'Your comments'.

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Update 21/9/01

The Village meeting took place as planned on the 21st September, and the was well supported. At a result a Steering Group of 16 volunteers was formed. This group will now meet on the 17th October to start the process of preparing the questionnaire.

This will include :-
Formation of group and its relationship with parish council
Agreement of objectives (& constitution/remit)
Election of officers and organisation of working groups
Identify any "skills gaps"
Rough time plan for the appraisal
Resources/funding

A number of other volunteers (10) put their names forward for other stages in the process, Drafting the Questions, Publicity, Delivery & Collection, Processing the completed questioners and compiling the report to present to the various bodies for actions to be put in place.
During the meeting on 21/9/01 a similar mini survey to that held at 'Past & Present' event was conducted by all those in attendancee, the results are as follows:-

WHAT IS SPECIAL? Most important “likes” about living in Bulmer
Friendliness of villagers, community spirit
Physical surroundings, rural location, beautiful landscapes and views
Footpaths, walking
Peace and Quiet, unspoilt, small
Comparatively low crime rate
Close to Sudbury and Halstead
Post Office
Village Hall
Good social mix
Church
School and nursery school
Bus service
Additional comments
No teenagers
Anonymity
Fresh air
Good neighbours
Village societies
Good website
Flora & fauna
Properly dark at night

WHAT ARE THE PROBLEMS? Highest priorities in Bulmer
No feeling of “belonging” to the village, geographical spread, not a natural cohesive unit
Apathy, lack of interest of locals
Lack of “first time” housing, need for 2 bed starter homes
Lack of village pub/informal place to socialise
Lack of amenities e.g. pub, shop, paper delivery
Very untidy, no maintenance, scruffy verges
Rubbish dumping
No facilities for children to play
Lack of off street play areas (Lawrence Cox’s field, Bakers field, Park lane allotments?)
Traffic, speeding, on street parking in inconsiderate places
Threat to greenbelt, closeness to Sudbury
Lack of Footway from village to school
Crossing place needed near school pick up point
Circular bridle path
Recycling especially plastics, tins
Additional comments
German shepherd dogs
Lack of community spirit
Ditches need to be maintained to help prevent flooding
Lack of Policing
Lack of transport on a regular basis
Playground for school - skateboard area
No gas
Care of hedgerows

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The Appraisal is launched

The Parish Council at the meeting of the 13th July agreed that a Village appraisal should be carried out with assistance of Mrs Jan Cole Appraisals Fieldworker (Braintree District) Rural Community Council of Essex.
It should be noted at this point, that this procedure is NOT conducted by the Parish Council or the Village Hall, but by a Steering Group made up from independent residents from the Village.

Residents completing the survey At the launch of this process at the recent “Bulmer Past & Present” approximately 10% of Bulmer residents took part in a survey to establish the basis of the full appraisal.

The results were interesting, as a taster here are some of the comments made.
WHAT IS SPECIAL? What do you like about living in Bulmer?
Very Friendly, happy atmosphere, the people, community spirit (15)
Quietness, tranquillity, it’s a village! (13)
Fine views, pretty, beautiful open countryside (12)
Proximity to Sudbury (5)
The Village Hall, VHC events (4)
Lively village, many events, things to do, hard working folk (3)
My school (3)

WHAT ARE THE PROBLEMS? What don’t you like?
Speeding cars through the village, ineffective speed limit (10)
Pub closed, No pub (9)
No recreation for children, no playground, lack of play area/sports facility for children (4)
No communal recreation area
Untidy verges and pathways (Avenue V.Orchard), Avenue maintained more often (3)
No Copper, more visible policing (2)
Traffic in Church Road by school at beginning and end of day, parking on bend (2)
Juggernauts on unsuitable roads

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The next stage is hold a Village meeting, that has been set for the 21st September at 7:30pm to which you are invited to attend, and find out more about the process and to form the Steering Group.


So why is it so important and what is an appraisal, I here you ask....... well.......

An Appraisal is a survey of community opinion on local services that involves everyone in our village.
In some communities, appraisals are carried out in response to a particular concern, such as a lack of affordable local housing or the need for radical work on the village hall. In these instances, a specific type of appraisal may be required i.e. a housing needs survey or a feasibility study for a capital project.
In others, appraisals cover a wide range of issues important to our community and may be undertaken using a household questionnaire, comment flags on a map or model, a series of meetings and workshops or any combination of methods.
The views and opinions of the community are gathered together and complied in a report highlighting local needs and suggesting objectives to be included in a Parish Plan.
Most communities find that decision making bodies are influenced by their appraisal findings and are keen to work with the community on the action plan.

For example as a direct result of completing an appraisal and action plan:-
   Kelvedon is proceeding with a major village hall project,
   Castle Hedingham has installed new play equipment at the recreation ground,
   Sturmer has provided activities for young people, including visits from the Youth Service mobile “cyber van”,
   White Colne has secured Adult Education classes at their village hall and built a basketball practice area for local youngsters.

All have commented on the increased interest in parish affairs and improved community spirit following an appraisal and action plan.

THE FUTURE OF BULMER
DO YOU CARE?

An Appraisal is important because....

It identifies areas of concern within the community and highlights what needs to be improved or conserved;

It gives everyone the chance of being heard. Not just those who speak up at local meetings:

It enables the parish council to fulfill the consult element of the “Spirit of Best Value” and become “Quality Parishes”,

It provides the basis for a Parish or Town Plan (PTP) as recommended in the Rural

White Paper; It enables future projects to be planned with the knowledge that they have cornmunity support;

It improves success in funding applications by providing evidence of community involvement in local projects;

It helps bring groups and individuals in the community together to work towards a common goal;

It enables local priorities to be fed into the community planning process and become part of the Braintree District Community Strategy;

It contributes to securing a thriving and viable future for the community.

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