Extraordinary Meeting – March 2020

Parish Council Meetings and Minutes
Extraordinary Meeting of Northington Parish Council at
West Lodge, Northington on Tuesday, 17 March 2020.

This extraordinary meeting, which started at 7.00 pm, was called to discuss the nature of NPC’s future response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Present were:

John Mitchell (JM) Yvonne White (YW) Melissa Jennings (MJ) Bill Wykeham (BW) Dennis Nye (DN)

By special invitation also present were Elaine Capp (EC) representing Neighbourhood Watch and Lou Walker (LW), a village volunteer experienced in teamwork.

  1. JM began by saying that he thought that it was perhaps the most important meeting of his life and thanked everyone for coming. He was looking forward to hearing their thoughts on the way ahead.
    We needed to be measured in what we decided to do and to be, as sure as may be, that our fellow parishioners would accept our decisions. It was important to keep our actions co-ordinated and make sure that we all knew, as far as possible, what the others were doing.
  2. How would we do that? LW had flagged up a site http://coronavirus- support-group.co.uk/ ,which usefully listed ideas for establishing a local help group. The meeting noted that Northington already has many of the basic communications suggestions.
  3. JM noted that NPC has a Resilience Officer, MJ, a post created after the no electricity debacle of Christmas of 2013. MJ said she was happy to continue in an overarching role but would need help. JM thanked her.
  4. There followed a discussion about
    • Groups of volunteers who could watch out for needy neighbours.
    • The resources to hand – maps, addresses and mailing lists
    • Communications: this led to discussion of the village-wide email list

      and the most appropriate social media medium. WhatsApp.

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  • It was accepted that data lists would need to be under NPC’s umbrella to meet GDPR requirements.
  • After discussion it was agreed that an email letter should be sent to the entire village.

    It was further agreed that this same letter would be hand delivered to every household in the Parish, to cover those residents whose name might not be on the email list.

  1. The key tools at Northington’s disposal will be:
    • NPC’s email list
    • EC’s list of addresses
    • WCC electoral roll or similar listing of households/addresses for the

      village

  2. It was agreed that:

• DN and MJ will be the first point of contact for villagers asking for help. DN and MJ will pass requests on to a team of volunteers coordinated by LW
• DN and MJ will list requests for support and notifications of homes in isolation.

  • LW will establish a WhatsApp group or groups to manage local planning and volunteer activities
  • LW’s WhatsApp group will respond to individual local requests.
  • Wherever possible NPC will establish primary and secondary owners for tasks to provide back-up.
    Dennis (DN) / Melissa (MJ)
    Lou (LW) / Yvonne (YW)
  • BW is available to help with contacting residents.
  • The village email will be used for key messages.
  • WhatsApp will be used to keep in touch with volunteers. •
  • The Parish website will provide an alternative communication

    site.

  • JM to email periodic updates to residents with local updates

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This forum will meet shortly to review progress.

The meeting ended at 8.00 pm.

EJM
28 March 2020