65TH ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

Held in St Johns Church Hall on Thursday 15th May 2003

Present: Mrs Annette Brooke, MP, Cllrs Mike Brooke and David Newell, and 50 members and officers of the Association. John Noyes took the Chair.

1 APOLOGIES: Frank Meaton and Cllr Mason.

2 MINUTES of the 64th ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING held on 16th May 2002. These minutes having been published in the Summer 2002 Magazine, were taken as read.

3 ACTIONS and MATTERS ARISING None.

At this point the Chairman welcomed the recently elected Broadstone Councillors (Cllr. Brooke and Cllr. Newell). He stated that following the transfer of control in the Council (From Lib Dem. to Tory), there would be changes to the ward groupings of the Local Area Committees, and asked the new Councillors for details. These were available after the meeting.

4 CHAIRMAN'S REPORT

First of all the Chairman thanked the Officers and Wardens of this Association for their hard work and support. It is through their hard work that the membership of the Association has grown to over 3100 households.

He also took the opportunity to thank John Sayers and his wife for the provision of the Wine and Snacks we would be enjoying later.

He also gave a special word of thanks to Bernard Rye our Treasurer, who was retiring after ten years service.

2002 was the Queen's Golden Jubilee, and the Association together with the Chamber of Trade, had organised Loyal Address to the Queen. Signature pages were available in local shops for local residents to sign. The combined petition with over 600 signatures was presented to the Queen's representative at Buckingham Palace, on 11th of June, by a deputation headed by our President, Dr. Ken Fleming. Jointly we had also planned to provide a 'Jubilee Tree' to match the tree we provided for the Millennium celebrations.

This had been planted this Spring, and was doing well. The associated seat had been reversed to face the War Memorial.

An alternative proposal for the Toastrack Parking had been accepted by the Council, and recently implemented. There was now room for through traffic to bypass the bottleneck, and the main cause for congestion appears to be the long time setting for the pelican crossing to clear.

Footpath 5 is still not making any real progress, despite attempts to include the Golf Club, in a round table discussion with all interested parties.

The situation where a local builder had mis-appropriated council land which was part of Delph Woods, had been resolved and the builder had agreed to pay compensation to the Council. The money was to be spent on improving leisure facilities both in Broadstone (two thirds), and elsewhere within the Borough. The Broadstone portion was to be spent on improvements to the car park and the access road in the Delph, some on renewing the children's play area in the Recreation Ground, and some (possibly) on purchasing a plot of land to add to the Corfe Hills South area.

During the year there had been moves by the Boundary Commission to move part of the Pine Springs area into the Creekmoor Ward. But after pressure from the Residents themselves, as well as efforts from the local MP and the Residents' Association, the Boundary Commission surprisingly changed track and left all of Pine Springs within Broadstone Ward.

Over the year, BRA had supported a number of local initiatives and associations. We had donated money to support the juniors section of the Broadstone Football Club, and given grants to Broadstone in Bloom, the Memorial Hall and the Methodist Church. We had also agreed, subject to approval of this meeting, to give a further £250 to the Methodist Church, and the Chairman asked for a vote of approval to allocate this sum This was supported unanimously by a show of hands.

In closing, the Chairman looked forward to both the refreshments and a very interesting talk about the Police Air Support helicopter.

5 TREASURER'S REPORT for the year ending 31st December, 2002

A copy of the Receipts and Expenditure Account was presented to all persons present. The Treasurer explained in detail the final accounts, which showed a balance of £4940, considerably less than the previous year. This reflected slightly higher costs for the magazines, and more money in grants to various Broadstone organisations, in line with the policy decision taken last year. This would mean that funds would sink to a low level when we paid for the Summer Magazine, but the Treasurer felt that the increase in subscription rates would restore the balance.

The accounts were accepted on a show of hands.

Bernard referred to the fact that this was his last act as Treasurer, as he was retiring after ten years service, and he thanked Frank Wood and John Milhofer for their continued assistance during this period.

6. REPORTS BY OFFICERS

6.1 Planning

Pat Talbot, summarising the applications he had reviewed in the year, noted that there had been 333 applications for Broadstone, virtually unchanged from 2002. Several applications had been contested on the grounds of overdevelopment, and several had finally been approved in a much reduced form.

14B Grange Road had finally been approved for just 4 flats, and 62 Higher Blandford Road was no longer flats, just two detached houses. 5 Merriefield Ave. was finally approved in a reduced form, and Harry Palmer Ltd had received approval for an office block behind 2-4 Dunyeats Rd, but with no vehicle passage through to Macaulay Rd. 108 York Rd and rear of 39 Merriefield Avenue are both stalled due to small sites, and the application for flats at 33 Higher Blandford Road has been withdrawn. The least satisfactory situation is in Brookfield Close, where the plan to turn the bungalow at No. 2, into a fair sized chalet was approved, despite considerable local objection, and there is now a similar application to do likewise at No.3. This second application has been turned down, but has gone to appeal.

Generally tree applications do not cause widespread concern, but the tree outside the new Methodist Community Centre is at the centre of a dispute with the Poole Planners. Because of pledges about giving some land to allow widening of Story Lane at the rear, the church building has been moved forward and very close to the large cypress in the front garden space. It would appear practical to remove it and allow better light and access to the building, but as yet the Planners are not convinced. There were two brief questions, firstly to ask about the proliferation of aerials on the roof of the telephone exchange, and the second about the status of the site of the old Fairlight Hotel. Pat replied that aerials could be sited virtually anywhere without needing to have planning permission, and that currently there was no application in for the Hotel site.

6.2 Editor

John Milhofer began by stating that the Summer Magazine was already well in hand, thanks to the number of contributors who had written articles early and reduced his normal stress levels. For those still to produce, June 12th was the deadline. John asked whether there were any sections of the Community who felt they were not receiving sufficient exposure, and hoped that the ensuing silence was due to satisfaction and not apathy. With regard to criticisms of political bias, the Editor denied it absolutely and assured members his loyalty lay entirely with the Association and the Magazine.

6.3 Advertising

John pointed out that with the rise in subscriptions, the advertising revenue would be a smaller percentage of the Association's revenue this year, but he felt it was still an important source of income, and represented good value for money for his clients. By low pressure salesmanship, he had managed to persuade one advertiser to reduce his space, and two others to stop advertising, and thus had room to accommodate all customers on the waiting list, albeit with smaller advertisements than they would have liked. He stressed however, how grateful the Association was for the advertisers' continuing support.

6.4 Chief Warden

Frank Wood began expressing the gratitude of the Committee to our team of some 70 wardens, who have raised the total membership to more than 3100, and still rising. So far this year, the decision to raise the subscription to £1.50 did not appear to have affected membership numbers, and residents were still keen to receive their copy of the excellent and interesting magazine the our Editor produces. As always the success rests with our team of Area and Street Wardens, and as always we do not have a full team. Some areas are more difficult to staff than others.

Area 1 (John Sayers, Northeast of the Broadway) has a full team of 13 Wardens.

Doreen Canby (Area 2, East of Lower Blandford Rd) has 11 Wardens, and one vacancy for Charborough Rd.

Cherry Lorberg (Area 3, between Lower Blandford Rd and Broadstone Way) has 10 Wardens and two vacancies for Selby Close and Grange Road.

Area 4 covers the area between Broadstone Way and Springdale Road. Ken Slydel the Area Warden has a team of 11 wardens, and one vacancy for the southern end of Lytchett Drive.

Sally Banford (Area 5) and her husband cover Springdale Road round to Higher Blandford Road, a large area with 15 wardens. Sally has managed to recruit three new wardens this year to complete her team

Area 6, the smallest area (between Higher Blandford Road, and the Trailway) is organised by Mrs Sam Perkins with 6 Wardens. She also covers one or two small sections of Area 5.

Area 7, Pine Springs is run by Ted Loader, who has 4 Wardens and 4 vacancies. This area is mainly younger working people, and it is difficult to find volunteers.

This year we have also extended outside the Broadstone boundary, thanks to one of our advertisers, Mrs Browning who agreed to start a group in Corfe Lodge Road and now has 25 members.

Frank has indicated that he wishes to retire from the Chief Warden's position. John Sayer has provisionally agreed to act as successor, but for this coming year wishes to be Assistant Chief Warden, and, all being well, will accept the full post in 2004.

If anyone feels they can help with magazine distribution, please ring Frank on 694195.

6.5 Education

Margaret Roebuck reported that it had been a fairly 'quiet' year for Broadstone Schools. However there were one or two significant events, and some very satisfactory performance indicators.

On a national level, the Special Needs and Disability Act, 2001 came into effect in September 2002. This made it unlawful for schools to discriminate against disabled pupils in the provision of education and services. Schools were required to produce compliance strategies, and the LEA had to draw up plans to improve access for the disabled. The LEA would receive a share of the £l70 million that the government had made available for this work. The government had also introduced a new code for admissions and exclusions.

Courses had been held to assist in training for members of the various Schools Appeals Panels, but it was not yet certain that the new scheme would work.

At a local level, the decision on changing to a six term academic year, had been deferred until 2003. A new Policy Director for education had been appointed (John Nash from Gloucester), and would be starting this Summer.

For Broadstone schools, at Broadstone First, the old temporary black hut had now been replaced by a new block linked to the main building. This would be opened on June 27th. Springdale First had a modified catchment area, excluding Corfe Mullen pupils. Broadstone Middle had achieved excellent keystage 2 SAT results, and had developed its IT strategy to such an extent that it now had one PC per 7 pupils. Corfe Hills had provided above average results at all levels, Keystage 3, GCSE, AVCE, A and AS levels. Apart from academic achievement, pupils were also encouraged to have a

broader outlook. They had worked with Police, Consumer Protection Services and local retailers, to try and reduce underage smoking and drinking. They had also been involved in fund raising for charity, and this year the winner of the 'Great Escape' had reached Paris. A new head had been appointed - Mr Hinchcliffe, from Westwood St. James school in Salisbury. He would be starting in September. Congratulations to teachers and pupils on their achievements.

6.7 Dorset Federation

The Federation is very concerned about the proposed transfer of several responsibilities from Local Authorities to the new (unelected) Regional Authority. In particular, planning was investigated, and out of DCC, the two Unitary Authorities and the local planning authorities within the County, only DCC were opposed to the idea.

The Federation had also contacted Dorset NTs about the problems associated with 'Travellers'. Other topics investigated during the year, included Hum Airport, which had shown a reasonable growth in passenger numbers. BAC 111 s were no longer in service there, which had greatly reduced noise. Waste again was a frequent topic, and whilst DCC and local authorities appear to have accepted the ideas of Mechanical Biological treatments, including Waste to Energy, no Authority has made budgetary provision for introducing such measures. The Federation had also supported CPRE in their drive to introduce 40 mph and 30mph speed limits on rural roads and in villages

7 Election of Officers

The President, Dr Fleming, now took the chair. He thanked the Chairman for his leadership during the past year, and how pleased he was to see the Association still growing. He has also walked round the Recreation Ground, and was delighted with the state of the two ceremonial trees that were planted in 2000 and 2003.

He felt the visit to Buckingham Palace to hand in the Jubilee petition turned out to be a bit of an anticlimax.

He then accepted the Committee's nomination of John Noyes as Chairman, and this was approved by a show of hands. John then resumed the Chairman's seat.

In compliance with the rules of the Association, a notice had appeared in the Spring Newsletter, inviting members to nominate persons for office. No nominations had been received and the Executive Committee recommended that the officers listed below be re-elected. These officers were elected unopposed.

Two new Officers were proposed and elected.

Roger Jefferies (Proposed PAT, seconded FW) became the new Treasurer, and John Sayers (Proposed SB and seconded D. Hawker) accepted the new post of Assistant Chief Warden. Frank Meaton (Dorset Federation) and Don Harris (Chamber of Trade) will continue to serve on the committee, as will the existing area wardens, and the warden's representatives.

8 Appointment of Auditor

T. Bridle had offered his services, and the offer was accepted on a show of hands.

9 Subscription Rate for the Coming Year

The Chairman felt that the subscription for 2003 was just about right, and asked if anyone felt there should be a change. No member advocated any change so it will remain at £1.50 for 2004.

10 AOB

At this point P.A. Talbot intervened to announce the sorry news that TSI, Ltd, the contractors for building the new Methodist Community Centre, had gone into receivership. Fortunately most of the money was safely ring fenced, but to make any further progress the church would need to find another main contractor, and re negotiate the sub contracts for plumbing, painting, electrical work, etc. This will introduce some delay in the program, and June now looks impossible, with September a more likely month.

***********************

After the Refreshment Break we had talk from Phil Cottrell of the Police Air Support Unit, about the Police Helicopter.

Phil was intending to give a 'Power Point' presentation, but had problems with the PC he brought. Disaster?? No! Phil gave a most fluent and interesting talk about the helicopter. He started with his early days as a motor cycle cop, when he needed to call for helicopter help, and found the heat seeking capability just the job for telling him where criminals were hiding.

He then moved to his current job within the unit, and outlined the staffing arrangements that involved a number of experienced contract pilots plus 8 police observers. Once in the air there was a lot of video and imaging equipment, together with 8 communications channels, and the crew (pilot + 2 observers) had to mange all this equipment. One of the radio channels was for air traffic control, necessary when flying near an airport.

The helicopter undertook two main tasks, carrying personnel and casualties around Dorset, and observing the site of criminal activity. The vehicle was able to reach most parts of Dorset within 12 mins., and could take specialist teams dog handlers, armed police etc. to site, as well as working in emergency to transfer casualties back to hospital.

When observing, the state of the art heat seeking scanners could spot a person from over 1000 feet, and covered more ground in 30 minutes, than 50 policemen could manage in a day.

The machine itself was selected on grounds of safety, having two independent engines, and was maintained in Gloucestershire. When away for service, there were sharing arrangements with neighbouring constabularies, and occasionally they co-operated on major tasks. The aircraft cost £600 per hour to run, and normally was available for around 20 hours per day. Due to the demand for reliable helicopters, the plane was still worth its buying price, and the Constabulary were looking at plans to sell this machine and lease/hire a new helicopter that would have all the latest electronic equipment, and eliminate the out of service problems of maintenance and repairs.

At the end of the talk the Chairman expressed our thanks to an the speaker and this was duly signified in time honoured fashion.

Archive Winter 2003

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