Big meeting of all parish councils united against Hanley Grange

Went to the meeting this evening in Whittlesford about Hanley Grange - and came away with some work to do sorting out the publicity material!

Most of the parish councils in south Cambridgeshire were represented, together with one or two local societies, a number of South Cambs district and Cambridgeshire County councillors, as well as a district councillor from Uttlesford. County and District Planning officials were there.

There was an update of recent activity:

• the petition on the “stop hanley grange” website;
• South Cambs had written to all the parish clerks setting out its opposition to the building of Hanley Grange;
• A leaflet put together by the County, South Cambs, Cambridgeshire Horizons and Andrew Lansley MP was being distributed to all houses within a radius of 8 miles;
• A formal motion was to be put to Cambridgeshire County Council to formally oppose Hanley Grange;
• Jarrow Associates had announced their intention to carry out public consultation via a roadshow to put the case for Hanley Grange.

A speaker from Save Elsenham Village gave a presentation. Not the same situation as we have the district and the county on our side! But some useful points made:

· At Elsenham there is a joint parish steering group which represents the parishes involved, supported by funding via parish precepts;

· a smaller Working Group has been set up, with financial authority to spend money and take decisions without having to clear everything through the Steering Group;

• the roles on the Working Group are well defined, and there is a strategy guiding the campaign, including identifying which are the arguments that are “winnable”;

· there was a strong emphasis on PR, single point of contact for press liaison, having very clear “lines to take”, and the importance of good quality letters written by residents opposing the building plans.

What was decided was that all the parishes would send representatives to a meeting next Thursday, to agree the setting up of a JSPG, and who would do what, and report the result to the next meeting chaired by Andrew Lansley.

I said I would work with a group of people to get the proposals for leaflets etc sorted out so we know what is needed and what it will cost - by next week!