Thank you to everyone who came along to the Shaping Grosmont next steps meeting on Thursday evening in the nave and for your enthusiastic contributions. I will summarise below an outline of the evening and the ideas that were developed. You can also see attached a presentation from the evening and thematic tables- I will refer to these in the notes below.

Running repeat sessions so everyone can contribute
Those who attended felt that it would be worth running a similar session for anyone who couldn’t make it first time around.  To this end it would be helpful for your feedback to answer the following 2 questions so I can gauge interest and run this at a suitable time:

1. Would you like to attend if I organise another next steps meeting so you can get up to speed and contribute to the early development of ideas?
2. If so, when would be a good time for you? (it would be a 2 hours session): A) between 10am-3pm  B) at the weekend C) midweek 5-7pm D) midweek 7-9pm

I will do my best to accommodate everyone and am happy to run as many of these sessions as demand dictates, during May. Following these meetings  I will then arrange a “next steps part 2” meeting for everyone (including the vanguard who made it to the first meeting on Thursday). I hope that makes sense? I think this exercise is best completed in groups so I can explain things and people can support each other but please feel free to develop the thematic tables and return to me electronically if you are unable to attend a group session and I will add your contributions to the master version.

Shaping Grosmont meeting notes 11.4.2019
The meeting aimed to sense check the report findings and start to develop and prioritise some of the ideas expressed by the community so far. I reminded everyone that the report was the starting point for further discussions and that the contents will evolve in response to changes in the community or new opportunities/challenges that present themselves.

People generally felt the report was a good reflection of what has been said to date. The importance of the pub and nave was reiterated. A reference copy of the report has been left at the church for anyone who doesn’t have internet access.

Prioritising themes
There were 10 key themes in the report and we did an activity to try and prioritise these. The results of this were that the top 4 priorities were listed as:

• Strong sense of community (improving community communications and networks)
• Community governance (finding ways to make decisions and develop projects collaboratively)
• Transport and accessibility
• Protecting the character and heritage of the village and landscape.

It should be noted that most of the themes were seen as being important and there were particular issues and ideas under other themes which were still of interest so this activity didn’t discount any of these at this stage.

Exploring, developing and prioritising issues and ideas
I introduced thematic tables which included all the key  issues, ideas and existing strengths that have been raised so far in the community. As you can see in the attached file these also included questions to develop these ideas and prioritise them. There was also space to raise new ideas. Text in black in these tables was taken from the comments that contributed to the Shaping Grosmont report. During the meeting, these ideas were developed further and these contributions can be seen in red text. Groups worked in the order they had prioritised themes but there wasn’t enough time for all thematic tables to be developed. However groups started to make good progress getting a sense of which potential projects were important and which were feasible and by concentrating on particular issues or opportunities fresh ideas emerged.  Those attending requested a follow up session to allow time to develop these further.

Support and funding
I briefly introduced potential funding that can support the development of community led activities in Grosmont. You can see more information about 2 different funding options in the last few slides in the presentation. It should be stressed that other funding options also exist which may be more appropriate.  I also stressed the need not to put the cart before the horse and to determine who could deliver such projects and be clear about what people really wanted to focus on before considering funding opportunities. However I also explained that National Lottery have in the last couple of months agreed to ring fence funding for projects which meet the eligibility criteria in areas where Rural Futures is working-which includes Grosmont. It would be best to discuss this in more detail face to face once priorities and potential projects have emerged but it does present a great opportunity for the area.

My availability
I will be on leave from 18-26 April.   I hope to hear from you ASAP so I can start to arrange repeat sessions if required or about any other matter you’d like to discuss further.

Thank you for reading such a long message and best wishes for a good break over Easter.

Individual Thematic tables after next steps meeting 11.4.19[25722]
Next steps presentation Grosmont v2 11.4.19[25723]