THE LONG WAIT:THE WORK OF THE CO-ORDINATING COMMITTEE

After getting started as a protest / action group before a formal planning application is submitted you enter a period in limbo. The task is to learn as much as possible about how to organise a protest campaign and keep the group going for what might be a long period between the applicant getting a reply to their Scoping Inquiry letter from the Mineral Planning Authority and them submitting a formal planning application.

During this time the group will not have a particular planning proposal to protest about which can make for difficulties in keeping the campaign going. The task of keeping it going will fall on the committee elected at the Public Protest Meeting.

It took some time for us to organise the way this committee worked, but eventually we devised a master agenda and use it to structure our committee meetings. Here it is:

MOPG MASTER AGENDA   Co-ordinating Committee

AGENDA ITEM                                                    LEAD PERSON

1        Apologies                                                  Secretary           

2        Approval of the Minutes                                       Chair Co-Com

3        Matters Arising (unless an agenda item)               Chair Co-Com

4        Correspondence / Communication                       Secretary initially + (emails + phone conversations unless an agenda item)

5        Campaign Issues

Campaign Issues                               Campaign Coordinator  

                   Membership Report                           Membership Sec

                   Financial Report                                Treasurer

                   Newsletter                                         Editor

6        Report on Research                                   Research Co-ord

7        Review of Submission Headings                   Chair MOPG                             

        ( to be used in our submission objecting 

to UK Coal’s planning  application).

8        AOB

9        Date and place of the next meeting            Chair Co-com      

This is only a suggestion of how to organise your meetings, but it has helped us to keep focussed on both how to keep the campaigned going and how to prepare for the eventual submission.

Steve Leary                                                                     22/5/09