Neha Jhalani Hiranandani: A Guide to Her Life and Career
Caldicot town team
1.
2. SO WHAT IS CALDICOT TOWN TEAM?
Caldicot Town Team is a community group, made up of a mix of Businesses, Residents and Landlords, We aim to be allinclusive, welcoming and actively want to encourage the opinions, thoughts and ideas of the people that use Caldicot
and have done for many years, along with those of you that may never have even stepped foot in Caldicot town
centre, and are not actually aware of what is on offer, or what can be achieved, with a little bit of
enthusiasm, support, and adaptions.
Caldicot Town Team is focussed on working closely with Asda on the new supermarket development, along with
Monmouthshire County Council on the linkage between Asda and the town centre, we are also building a close
relationship with landlords and businesses in the area, and are actively working to improve the facilities and services that
are currently on offer within Caldicot, and throughout the Severnside area.
We want to work with community groups, we can build a better, more vibrant, economically prosperous town. based in
Severnside, and encourage them to become involved with us, and what can be achieved,
We also want to bring back a real sense of community with events that currently take place in and around Caldicot, and
bring back some events that no longer take place, for one reason or another, we want to expand on this, Severnside has
some real jewels that should be taken advantage of, we want to put Severnside on the tourist map, bringing in such things
as a digital history trail, a new incredible edible scheme, and making public the history that we have to offer.
3. DIRECTORS?
Aaron Reeks - Resident
Tim Washbourne – Business (Washbournes Petrol Station)
Haulwen Smith – Business (Clean & Fresh Laundrette)
Simon Wanklyn – Resident
Sam Francis – Resident
4. SO, WHAT HAVE WE DONE SO
FAR?
• We helped to organise and put on this years Caldicot Fireworks Display, Some of the
comments received over Facebook/twitter are coming up.
• We had over 5,000 attend the event
• We provided a fun fair, live bands, food stalls, and community stalls
• We also managed to almost halve the entry fee this year, down to £3 for adults and
over 7’s
• Under 7’s were free
• We made a profit in our 1st year and 1st event, and have put this aside to help
toward other events in the calendar.
• Over 150 volunteers helped make this a success with help from; Caldicot
Scouts, Monmouthshire Youth Service, Undy football club, Magor Explorers, Waitrose
and more… The event would not have gone ahead, had we not received the
fantastic support of all the helpers.
Fireworks comments
5. SO, WHAT HAVE WE DONE SO
FAR?
• We held an engagement event in Caldicot town centre, in conjunction with
Mountford Piggot, (architects to Mon CC working on the linkage between
Asda and the town centre) and business wales
• During the engagement event we had around 700 visitors to the shop, and
they were tasked with plotting where and how they get into the town
centre.
• Complete a short questionnaire on current thoughts of the town centre, and
how it could be improved.
• Take some time thinking about what would need to change, using our
‘community led planning’ model and where the changes needed to be.
• The results of this, and a breakdown of responses for each category, are
available on our website, a hard copy can be provided upon request.
6. ENGAGEMENT EVENT REPORT
Transport & Access
Traffic noise is likely to become an issue once the new store is built and link
road is open, 12 responses were collected on this, further comments were also
made as to the possiblility of installing traffic lghts at castle lea/chepstow
road/woodstock way to reduce congestion,mebers of the public expressed
concern about the length of time it takes to get out of houses onto chepstow
road.
Environment & Sustainability
The band of trees at the bottom of woodstock way/chepstow road is a big
concern to many residents of caldicot, Most opionions wanted to keep the
trees to help block the view directly onto the car park, and although some
agree with the benefit for removing them for the new link road, felt that they
would provide a natural noise barrier for the area.
7. ENGAGEMENT EVENT REPORT
CONT…
Crime & Safety
When we break down the result collected for crime and safety, there are only a few
issues that seem to be facing Caldicot, and we hope to alleviate as many of these
problems as possible, by working with both the public and local police, We have
already started to build a relationship with Gwent Police
Work, Training & Local Economy
This category focussed on what elements should be brought into Caldicot to increase
footfall and the shopping experience, The results clearly show that there is a great
need for new businesses to be encouraged to open up. We are also looking at
introducing pop up shops for entreprenuers looking at setting up a new business in
Caldicot, and are already and will continue to work with landlords to make this
possible.
8. ENGAGEMENT EVENT REPORT
CONT…
Leisure & Tourism
Although this didn’t seem to produce many results, we will be looking at going back to
the public to further discuss the tourism opportunity that the Severnside area has to
offer, from Caldicot Castle to Magor Marsh and Caerwent Roman Remains. We would
like to the benefits of erecting a Town Map at either end of Caldicot Town Centre, to
better showcase the shops we have to offer, especially for the tourism that comes in
to an event at the Castle, We may even look to erect one at the castle as well.
Facilities & Services
Issues that were raised in this category focussed on The Zone, and that it is not big
enough, for the youths, and the toilets in Jubilee Way car park. We are going to work
with Monmouthshire youth service and MCC on improving both of these facilities in
the near future.
9. NEXT STEPS?
• Based on the engagement event report, Caldicot Town Team are going to focus their efforts on a few areas, over the
coming months,
• Commission a survey for the wider public of Severnside (including, Rogiet, Undy, Magor, Caldicot, Portskewett, Sudbrook
and Caerwent)
• Start a group to proceed with the Incredible Edible Scheme in Caldicot, with a view to widening the catchment area
across other Severnside areas once established. Incredible Edible Project
• Commission a report into the redevelopment of the town centre area itself, looking at the seating arrangements and the
feasibility of removing the current planters and erecting hanging baskets, in time for daffodils and other spring plants.
• Continue to work with MCC and Moutford Piggot on the design and construction of the linkage area, and keep fully up
to date and in touch with the builds on the school playing fields
• Engage with younger groups, including Caldicot School and Monmouthshire Youth Service to make sure we listen to their
views, and take on board any suggestions we can make to improve the area for them, and make Severnside a more
enjoyable place for everyone to live and work
• Look into creating a new Caldicot Magazine, (similar to Magor’s The Villager) which we will use to make the public
aware of any developments within the town team and the progress of Asda, along with providing other community
groups the chance to reach more members of the community than perhaps they currently do now.
• We are also looking at working with Caldicot Castle on their events program in 2014 to ensure they are able to publicise
events as much as possible, and local businesses are given the opportunity to make appeals to the tourism coming to
the area, to better benefit the local economy
10. HOW WILL WE MAKE DECISIONS?
Decisions will be made by you, in many different ways, making it is as accessible as possible to
everyone; Voting will be open for a two week period,
Questions will be short, and easy to understand. There will be a short description on the outline project
plans, and the answers will always be a simple Yes or No
• Online (Website)
• Online (Twitter poll)
• Online (Facebook poll)
• Newspaper (Free press series)
• Tokens (in stores around Severnside)
Waitrose Caldicot
Caldicot Library
Caldicot Leisure Centre
Washbournes Petrol
Station
• Caldicot Co-op
•
•
•
•
• Rogiet post office
• Caldicot One Stop
Shop
• Caldicot Post Office
• Portskewett Spar Shop
• Greyhill Surgery
•
•
•
•
•
Portskewett Surgery
Magor Surgery
Magor Post office
Caerwent Post office
Undy stores
11. Once votes have been collected and counted, We will have 2 options;
We will draw up a detailed budget and project plan
We will look at why the
public said no
The reports will then be submitted to the Severnside Program Board
Once the Project Board have accepted our proposal, which will include the
number of votes received, funds will be released to Caldicot Town Team
A Task and Finish group will be set up by us, they will then be tasked to complete
the project, as per specifications.
Once the project is completed, We will prepare a report, detailing How much the
project costs, the deadlines they worked too, any issues that occurred and if any over
spend, how much was it, and why. The report will then be made available to the
public, the program board and the Welsh Audit office.
We may make amend
the project, and ask the
public again
If the response if
overwhelming, we will
shelve the project, but may
look to review in the future
12. WHO WILL BE INVOLVED IN THE
DECISION MAKING?
• The simple answer is EVERYONE!
• We want all walks of life and skills involved, youth, school
children, commuters, unemployed, The Elderly, visitors and tourists and
everyone else to be involved in what we do.
• Votes will be taken with a simple yes or no format, if other comments are
made, they will be considered when we are drawing up the project
plan, but they will have no overriding influence on the overall
decision, which is made by the public.
• This is your opportunity to voice your opinion on how we shape Caldicot over
the next few years, There is no benefit in complaining about things if you
don’t take the opportunity to vote on projects, plans or events.
13. WHERE WILL WE GET FUNDING
FROM?
Caldicot Town Team will have access (subject to business plan and project board approval) from
Public S106 Monies, made available because of the new supermarket investment
Other funding sources can include;
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•
•
•
•
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Specific project fundraising from Crowdfunding
Arts Council for Wales
Awards for All
Big lottery fund Wales
Nesta (Digital Arts funding)
Supermarket foundations (Tesco, Asda, Sainsburys)
Local groups such as MHA and Church in Wales
Other funding sources through GAVO and Community Foundation in Wales
14. COULD I HELP?
• Do you…
• Live in Caldicot / surrounding areas?
• Work in Caldicot / surrounding areas?
• Visit Caldicot / surrounding areas?
• Have a family connection to Caldicot / surrounding areas?
• Own property here but live elsewhere?
• Have an interest in the community?
• Want to give something back to the community?
• Have any other connection whatsoever?