Residents Association Meeting, 10th January 2008
Minutes of the Executive Committee meeting held on Thursday 10th January 2008, in Broadstone Library. John Noyes took the Chair.
PRESENT John Noyes, P.A. Talbot, F. Wood, D. Hawker, R. Jefferies, J. Sayers, D. Rogers, Sally Banford, Cherry Lorberg, Rosemary Mitchell, Julia Helliker, D. Hull (Secretary ).
GUESTS, Cllr Dan Martin, Cllr Mike Brooke, D. Williams, J. Milhofer, R.Godfrey,
1. APOLOGIES
Cllr Les Burden, Don Harris, Barry Smith, Doreen Muckart, Cllr Mason
2. PREVIOUS MINUTES for 22nd November 2007
The previous minutes omitted the meetings request that the Secretary should write to the Council, expressing our wish that the market should continue in the toastrack. The letter had been sent, but did not stress the toastrack location. The name of our new PCSO should be Karen Preston. With these corrections the minutes were accepted as an accurate record of the meeting, and signed by the Chairman.
RJ raised the question of when the minutes should be distributed, since he found they were sometimes too late for actions to be carried out before the next meeting. JN said he was sometimes the delay in the loop, but agreed that it would be possible for advance ‘draft’ copies to be circulated to the main officers as soon as possible after the Exec. meeting. This would give them time to carry out actions, and to pass comment where they felt minutes were grossly inaccurate. - Sec
3. ACTIONS and MATTERS ARISING
Numbers in brackets refer to the item in the previous minutes.
(3.5) The Post Office notice board had been repaired, and the charges passed to the Treasurer. On the topic of notice boards, Ro. Mitchell told us that twice recently the Somerfield board had been stripped of all notices. The Sec said that in his many years of service, it did not happen very often, and was rarely repeated. RJ asked the status of notices that covered a period of time, like a term of dance classes. In general it was felt that if the events were in or close to Broadstone, the notice could be left for several weeks before being taken down.
(4) Farmers Market. The block to Poole’s Road Closure appeal was definite, and the Council had tried other locations. The Playground at the Broadstone First School was a possibility, and a meeting at the school today had agreed that, subject to a suitable contract, their Playground could be used.
(5) The survey about empty parking spaces around the Broadstone Hotel site, referred to in the planning hearing, had in fact been carried out by Peter Watson himself. Work was now well underway on site, and after demolishing the outbuildings work was beginning on the hotel building first, as per agreement.
(7) John Sayers commented strongly that whilst he was not at the previous meeting, no one had the courtesy to tell him about the problems with the magazine, and its non-appearance in January. (Secretary eats humble pie)
(7) The Solar Pyramid project had apparently been kicked out. Sec had attended a public meeting at the ‘Lighthouse’, where roughly 180 members of the public attended to express their almost universal opposition to the project.
MB commented that the Scrutiny committee had noted the public objections, and referred the subject back to Council Exec. The Exec. had reconsidered their support, and since the promoters had no convincing financial backing, they decided to look at other ways of promoting the tourist activity, and town trading.
(7) Customer First. From MB. The Scrutiny Committee have set up a smaller group to examine the progress of phase1. This group will need 3 or 4 months to produce a report.
4. CHAIRMAN’S REMARKS
JN felt his two major items would be covered later in the Agenda, and offered no more.
5. NOMINATION OF CHAIRMAN
John referred briefly to his intended retirement, and his initial concerns about a replacement. Initially he had hoped that PAT would step up from vice-chair, but Pat had too many other commitments. Our treasurer then suggested Roy Godfrey, who had recently given up all his social tasks for a quieter life. JN approached Roy, and Roy felt he could take on this one job. Having sat earlier on the Committee, Roy was no stranger, and was cordially welcomed. He said that if he was elected as Chairman he would be most proud to hold the office. As an incomer (his words), he volunteered a bit about himself, having spent most of his working life with Unilever, where he started as a process engineer and finished as manager of several sites in the South. He took early retirement 18 years ago, and has had a settled romance with Poole and Broadstone ever since. He felt he would be able to take the Association forward, and would look towards having open meetings for all members as well as the AGM. He felt that within our 3000 households there was a wealth of untapped (and younger) talent.
BW asked that we record that we had had a string of excellent Chairmen, and that John Noyes is the latest in that succession.
JN proposed and PAT seconded that Roy Godfrey be nominated as Chairman for the AGM elections. On this basis he was also to be invited as a guest to the remaining Exec meetings.
6. WINTER MAGAZINE
JN read out a report from our Magazine Editor, giving some of the reasons why the Winter edition was not available, and also expressing his disappointment that he had not been able to devote enough time to the job. He also stated that he wished to resign his position, once the current parts of the magazine had been assembled. JN said that it was sad the arrangement had not worked out, but said we were grateful for Barry’s efforts.
John Milhofer attended as a visitor, and had been speaking to Barry. From his experience he felt that mid March would be the earliest time we could distribute a Magazine.
BS had suggested that it might be sensible to combine the Magazine with the Spring Newsletter. This had some merit in simplifying our problems, but the Chief Warden and the Warden’s Representatives argued vehemently that they sold the membership on the basis of two magazines and a newsletter each year. On this basis the meeting accepted that we should proceed with both items. The question then of distribution was raised. It was felt that we would need the normal Feb 21st meeting, but could delay the April 3rd meeting, to give more time to produce the Newsletter. The Sec. was asked to check dates with the Library, and has been able to move the April date back to the 17th. For the magazine distribution, we will have to book an evening in mid March once M-day has been decided.
At this stage the questions were then ‘Who does the Newsletter??’ and ‘Who does the Summer Magazine??’ Julia Helliker, who, whilst in theory Editorial Assistant, had never been called into play, felt that with some help from JM and the rest of the committee, she would be able to produce a Newsletter, and for this the meeting was extremely grateful.
JH also said she might with much help have a shot at the Summer Magazine, but this was not definite and needed discussions with JM. (Sec’s Note. Subsequently Julia’s husband, Fabrice, has expressed a strong interest in taking over the Editor’s work)
After discussions next week we should have some indication as to the finish date for the Winter Magazine. BS
During the discussions, there were several thoughts relating to the magazine.
- Currently MPs and Councillors are not accepted as contributors.
- Short articles with suitable pictures make for interest.
- Quality of the publication. Competition is more glossy
- Frequency of publication. EG Broadstone link is monthly
- Seek input from schoolchildren.
7. PLANNING
PAT reported on 24 applications in the last period. Of significance:-
- 5 Westheath Rd. Revised plan for 4 flats. BRA recommends refusal.
- 2 Sydney Rd - Bungalow moving up to 5 bedroom. No one has objected.
- 18-20 York Rd – two blocks of 7 flats just less than the number for affordable properties. The further application for 10 flats at No. 18 has been refused by Planning, and gone to Appeal.
- 136 Lower Blandford Rd – Latest plans still require access from the recreation ground. This would establish a precedent about private profit from Council property.
MB told the meeting that there would soon be an application from Primetower, to build a sizeable block of sheltered flats on the site of the old Fairlight Hotel.
He also added that the likely name for the revamped Broadstone hotel would be “The Goodsyard”
8. TREASURER’S REPORT
Due to the increased subscription rates, income to date is £6112, an increase of 33% over last year.. There has been no further advertising money, and £90 will have to be written off. Interest to date is £337.
Three more copies of the History of Broadstone have been sold, leaving 2 with the treasurer and 2 with the area wardens. It would make sense if these latter were returned to the Treasurer.
JS
Expenditure consisted of£80 in respect of our membership and liability insurance with the Dorset Federation of Residents Associations. Their next meeting will be on Jan 12th and Sec plans to attend
There have also been charges for Hall hire and secretary’s expenses, leaving a surplus for the year to date of £6053. We still have to pay for the Winter Magazine – estimated £2500
This leaves our total balance at £13750, of which £13000 is on deposit at Scottish Widows.
RJ raised the question about what words would appear in the Winter Magazine asking for interested groups and societies wishing to apply for grants. PAT said he would approach Barry Smith to see what had been submitted.
9. IMPORTANT REPORTS
Chief Warden
JS, who was not at the November meeting, said how angry he had been when he discovered there would be no magazine. This was obviously a breakdown in communications, and added fuel to the move for quicker distribution of DRAFT minutes. He would need to know when M-Day was decided, as he needed to get names and quantities out to the publisher, in time.
Currently only three wardens had still to produce returns.
COT
BW said that the Christmas parade had been splendid, and luckily in the dry. The lights were not so successful, with the major supplier failing to deliver.
Education
DR had earlier announced that the First School playground could be holding the Farmers Market for a year from March onward.
He also added that much to everyone’s surprise, Karen Gillis the headmistress of Springdale school, had retired, and the new headmistress was Ruth Leach.
Secretary
There had been a Local Area Committee on the previous evening.
The cricket pavilion in the Delph was to be expanded, with an extra changing room for girls teams, and a large storage garage for better pitch management gear.
Newer Solutions were applying to double their waste processing facility on Canford Heath.
The first scheme had worked very well, and they were setting up facilities across the country. Unfortunately, Poole did not use this local facility, so all the processing they did carried a very non-green transport overhead. (We viewed the site 4 years ago)
There is to be a strategy and roll-out plan across the borough for telecomms and telephone masts.
10. AOB
David Williams reported that there had recently been a lot of vandalism and anti social behaviour in the Lewesdon Dr. and Cheam Road area. The initial Police efforts to be visible and quieten the situation had failed. So they had arranged an informal street session to talk to residents, and had leaflets to hand out. They were overwhelmed by the response, and could only speak to a limited number of people. One resident had produced a fair size dossier on recent events, and this had gone up to Inspector King.
Probably the Police would try to get more presence in the area if staff were available, and also more patrolling in the Broadway.
The meeting closed at 9.50 PM
The next meeting, on Thurs. February 21st 2008, is an Executive Committee Meeting
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