67TH ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

Held in St Johns Church Hall on Thursday 19th May 2005

Present :- Mrs Annette Brooke (MP), Cllr Mike Brooke, and seventy members and Officers of the Association.

John Noyes took the Chair, and said how pleased he was to see such a good attendance on such a miserable evening.

1 APOLOGIES :- Deputy Mayor of Poole, Cllr Les Burden

2 MINUTES OF THE 66TH ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING, HELD ON 20TH MAY 2004.

These minutes having been published in the Summer 2004 Magazine, were taken as read and signed by the Chairman.

3 ACTIONS AND MATTERS ARISING - None.

4 CHAIRMAN'S REPORT

First of all the Chairman thanked the Officers and Wardens of this Association for their continued work and support. It is through their hard work that the membership of the Association now covers 3200 homes.

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 expressed his thanks to Frank Meaton, who after many years has given up as our representative to the County Federation.

Regarding the new History of Broadstone. It is now virtually complete and ready for printing. We were currently negotiating for a grant to cover publishing costs.

The plan is to get money to print 1000 copies which will go on sale at approx. £5 per copy. Proceeds of the sales will go to local charities.

He passed comment on Dorset's decision to use MBT (mechanical biological treatment) plants to dispose of waste, rather than incineration. He stressed that this type of waste disposal did not produce dangerous gases, but did provide good compost. He felt that the protests in Ferndown were not completely justified.

This year we had given grants, totalling £610, to a number of local organisations, and were planning to make a substantial contribution to the Chamber of Trade, hoping they would be able to purchase a pleasing set of Christmas lights.

It was less pleasing to see the increasing number of vandalism incidents reported on the Neighbourhood Watch monthly sheet. The Police were working hard on ways to stop these crimes, and to some extent had been successful. It was thought that much of the vandalism was the result of alcohol, and at the next Local Area Committee meeting, we would be proposing that the centre of Broadstone became an alcohol free zone. The Chairman urged that anyone seeing criminal events should ring the new 222222 'phone number, so that the incident was officially recorded.

Finally he gave support to the Neighbourhood Watch AGM, which would be taking place next Thursday.

5 TREASURER'S REPORT FOR THE 12 MONTHS ENDING 31ST MARCH, 2005

A copy of the audited statement of income and expenditure was circulated to all persons present, showing another successful year.

Income for the year totalled £6,854. Subscriptions received were £4,556 (compared with £4,716 in the 15 months to 31 March 2004), Magazine Advertising was £2,115 (£2,140) and Interest received was £184 (£81) reflecting the higher rate of interest received from the Scottish Widows Bank.

Expenditure totalled £6,069. Magazine and Newsletter printing costs were £4,811 and Administration costs were £330. The Association had also spent £318 repairing the two notice boards outside the Post Office and Somerfields. In addition £610 had been donated to worthy causes within Broadstone.

This had left a surplus of £785 for the year which, when added to the funds held at the start of the year brought the Association's reserves to £4,627 most of which were held on deposit at the Scottish Widows Bank.

In conclusion, the Treasurer expressed his thanks to the auditor, Trevor Bridle, for his work in examining the books and records.

6. REPORTS BY OFFICERS

6.1 Planning

Pat Talbot , summarising the applications he had reviewed in the year, noted that there had been 278 applications for Broadstone.

Conservation Areas have been declared for the Ridgeway and St John's Church with a section of Tudor Road.

Bungalows on back-land have been approved, at 197 Lower Blandford Road, and at the end of Pickering Close.

There were several for small blocks of flats - 5 Flats in Grange Road, 6 in Westheath Road, 4 in Tudor Road and 6 in Wetherby Close.

Attempts to replace 2 Ridgeway with flats have so far failed and the latest application is only to convert the existing property into fewer flats.

Change of use for a retail shop into a financial services office was rejected on the grounds of losing more of Broadstone's retail centre, but a morerecent change is for a restaurant to become a takeaway.

Applications for the remaining plots at Delph Gardens are about to be considered by the planners, but look to be oversized properties for the available sites.

6.2 Magazine and Advertising

John Milhofer began by confessing he had mis-spelt Macaulay Road incorrectly in the quiz questions, and in the Spring Newsletter. Nobody had complained, so he felt grateful.
All the advertisers had stayed with us for another year and we still have a waiting list.
For policy reasons we can not accommodate all our would-be users, as more advertising would make the magazine less of a good read. Currently there are seven on the waiting list.

6.3 Chief Warden

The initiative by the Committee to seek new members by contacting all households in Broadstone, met with very limited response as, to date, only sixteen replies have been received.

John Sayers recorded his thanks to Frank Wood, last year's Chief Warden, for all the support he had given John this year.

He went on to describe the distribution chain, with Area Wardens for seven 'Areas' each with a number of wardens who cover one or more roads in their area. In total we have over 80 wardens, and as one would expect there is always a turnover of wardens resulting in vacancies. Some areas are more difficult to staff than others, particularly York Road and Upton Way. Many of the Street Wardens are quite old, so as well as being on the lookout for new Wardens, John hoped there would be some younger volunteers.

He emphasised the fact that without the chain of Wardens, the Association would die.
If anyone feels they can help with magazine distribution, which happens only three times a year, could they please ring John Sayers on 602235.

6.4 Education

Don Rogers felt that his first year as Education Officer had been very successful, and he extended his thanks to the secretarial and teaching staff of all the Broadstone schools for their approachability whilst he was compiling his report.

He said we had four excellent schools, and lots of good nursery schools for the under fives.
The big question coming up was the re-grouping of schools to cope with the new age ranges. This would be an expensive and long running saga.

Congratulations to all teachers, pupils and supportive parents on their achievements.

7 ELECTION OF OFFICERS

The President, Dr Fleming, now took the chair.

He was pleased to see such a good turnout of Members, and hoped the quiz would prove entertaining.

He thanked the Chairman for his leadership during the past year,
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. There had been no new nominations, but Margaret Roebuck had agreed to act as Liaison Officer with the Chamber of Trade. The remaining officers below were prepared to stand for the coming year, and were returned unopposed.

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

9 SUBSCRIPTION RATE FOR THE COMING YEAR

The Chairman felt that the subscription for 2005 was a fair figure, and asked if anyone wished for a change. No member advocated any change so it will remain at £1.50 for 2006.

10 DRAW FOR NEWSLETTER PRIZE

Annette Brooke (MP), drew the lucky number for the prize, and the winner of the £100 voucher from Brittany Ferries was Mrs Myers.

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After the Refreshment Break, the Chairman thanked Mr and Mrs Sayers for some excellent fare.

The old tradition of a feature talk was broken and a 'Local Knowledge' quiz was held.
This comprised of sets of 25 'local' questions, and we managed three such sessions before the prizes were all awarded. The questions were quite stiff, and we certainly would not have done well in the local SATS test.

At the end the Chairman expressed our thanks to John Milhofer who had compiled the questions and organised the quiz. Our appreciation was signified in time-honoured fashion.

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