Minutes of meeting

Minutes,

Minutes of Meeting Thursday July 27th 2017

Please find minutes of our latest meeting.

BROCKHILL RESIDENTS’ ASSOCIATION

Minutes of Meeting Thursday July 27th 2017 held at Alestones

 

Those Present:

David Dallaway

Lynn Dallaway

Sylvia Collinson

Julie Vincent

Tish Greenway

James Doble

Stephen Siddle

 

Apologies were received from Pattie Hill, Emma Fletcher and Margaret Mole.

 

Guests in attendance: – RBC Anita Clayton, WCC Brandon Clayton (both in attendance from 8 pm) and WCC Robin Lunn (in attendance from 8.40 pm).

 

 

The Agenda:

 

  • Actions arising from previous meeting on 13.2.17
  • Welcome to new committee members and discussion of their roles
  • Update on new Holyoakes Field First School
  • Website hosting
  • Pointers Way and progress with Persimmon
  • Salters Lane traffic calming measures and new crossing near junction of Oaktree Lane into Brockhill Park
  • Carthorse Lane speeding issues
  • Deep dip in pavement near to Rhymes Nursery
  • Murder Mystery Evening
  • Quiz Night
  • O.B.

 

Actions from last meeting:

 

As Robin Lunn was unable to attend the last meeting, David Dallaway emailed him on 16th Feb requesting updates on outstanding matters from our 13th July 2016 meeting.

 

The litter bin for the pathway adjacent to Greenford Close has still not been installed. Pattie Hill would again be asked to pursue this.

 

Pattie Hill had arranged for RBC to carry out an excellent job in blocking in the gaps on either side of the gated entrance at the top of the steps leading from Brockhill Lane to the Nature Reserve. However, there is now an additional request for blocking in of the gap under the gate itself as it is sufficiently large to allow even large dogs to pass through it and descend on to Brockhill Lane.

 

David Dallaway is now receiving names and postal details of new recruits and leavers from Sylvia Collinson thus enabling him to keep the members list up-to-date.

 

David Dallaway had emailed Pattie Hill and Robin Lunn again recently to seek confirmation as to whether adoption of the Nature Reserve had taken place. In addition he had enquired as to whether Persimmon still owns the strip of Public Open Space land between Pink Green Lane and Cookridge Close. Pattie had responded to say the matter had been referred for clarification to Ruth Bamford, RBC’s Head of Planning and Regeneration.

 

All members had been contacted ahead of the AGM asking for volunteers to join the committee. This had resulted in the recruitment of four new committee members – Emma Fletcher, Margaret Mole, Gemma Monaco and Stephen Siddle.

 

David Dallaway had requested a copy of the parking covenant from the Pointers Way resident who had contacted us. Unfortunately there had been no response to the request. Sylvia Collinson said she would see if a copy could be obtained from her son who lives in Cookridge Close.

 

In the absence of Pattie Hill, it was not known whether she had thanked the member living in Brockhill Lane for the fence repair he had carried out himself. James Doble commented on what a good job the member had done.

Julie Vincent had duly booked the Batchley Community Hall for the A.G.M.

 

Julie Vincent arranged to borrow litter picks and bin bags from RBC for the Litter Pick on Saturday July 8th. The event had proved successful with the consensus of opinion being that there was markedly less litter this year than last. A picture and small article had been included in The Redditch Standard on 21st July. David Dallaway commented that the number attending the pick was very disappointing when considering our overall membership level of more than 350.

 

Welcome to new members and discussion of their roles:

An informal meeting to welcome the new committee members had already been held chez Dallaway on 8th May. Emma Fletcher, Gemma Monaco and Stephen Siddle had all attended and apologies were received from Margaret Mole. Of those only Stephen Siddle was present at this evening’s meeting. We explained three vacant positions existed, that of Chairperson, Membership Secretary and Events Co-ordinator. He asked what the Membership Secretary’s role involved and David Dallaway explained that he had taken on the duties of updating the spreadsheet of members’ contact details following the resignation of Doug Wilks. Stephen Siddle said that he was familiar with spreadsheets and would be happy to take on this role if required.

 

Update on new Holyoakes Field First School:

Parents were informed in April that the school would not be able to move to its new premises on Pointers Way until at least January 2019. Robin Lunn announced that since then it has been discovered that not all the land actually belongs to Persimmon Homes. Apparently some is owned by a farmer and a German company. James Doble clarified the legal position regarding Section 106 and planning applications. Brandon Clayton was attending a meeting with Persimmon the next day and would raise our concerns about the delay and let us know the outcome.

 

Website hosting:

We decided at our last meeting there was a need to find a cheaper website host as the current one had become uncompetitive. Sylvia Collinson confirmed that the required advanced termination notice had been given to the current provider. Stephen Siddle had mentioned, at our informal meeting in May, that he had a contact (David) through his drama group who would be able to accommodate our hosting needs at no cost. Emma Fletcher, our new website administrator, has already researched some other hosting sites. As we use WordPress at the moment we probably need to ensure that any new hosting site has this option included. Emma will arrange to meet with David and Sylvia Collinson’s son Jules, the previous administrator. They will compare the services kindly offered by David and those of the other companies that Emma has looked at. We need to have the new host provider set up by September when the current contract expires.

David Dallaway explained that the profits from the annual Quiz Night just about covered the current costs of maintaining the website. Brandon Clayton very generously offered a grant of £250 from his WCC fund to be used towards our running costs.

 

Pointers Way and progress with Persimmon:

Gemma Monaco had sent Persimmon Homes South Midlands a fairly extensive report containing photographs highlighting the current poor state of the Pointers Way estate, especially around Burrington Close and the public open space area and boundary facing towards Mettis Aerospace. Their response indicated that they had recently appointed additional resource in order to ensure that estate completions were completed in a more timely manner and this development would be a priority for them. Hopefully some progression/completion of the public open space area and also the footpaths should be seen fairly soon, particularly as phase 2 is scheduled to start in the autumn.

Gemma has been unable, however, to obtain clarification as to who is responsible for the barns. She hopes to elicit this from Persimmon’s MD at a forthcoming meeting. As an interim measure Gemma had yet again tried to get in touch with Kate Tait, Strategic Planning Director of Persimmon Homes, but she was proving to be a particularly hard lady to track down! Brandon Clayton said that he was likely to see Kate at a forthcoming meeting with Persimmon. Julie Vincent asked if he could find out about the land that Persimmon had agreed to sell to those residents whose houses backed on to waste land in Carthorse Lane and Longmoor Close, as several of our members are concerned.

 

Salters Lane traffic calming measures and new crossing near junction of Oaktree Lane into Brockhill Park:

Robin Lunn told us that he has discussed a new crossing with the Highways Department at WCC for which approval has been granted. Hopefully more details of the design of the crossing will be available at our next meeting.

 

Carthorse Lane speeding issues:

 

Gemma and Phil Moore had contacted us regarding speeding vehicles in Carthorse Lane. Whilst it was appreciated that traffic calming measures were in place, they were deemed inadequate. Of particular concern was the pedestrian crossing point by the postbox and community notice board. A meeting at this location was held on 18th July attended by around 40 people consisting of residents, David and Lynn Dallaway, Robin Lunn, Brandon Clayton, Richard Clewer of the Highways Agency and Police Community Support Officer Edward Wood. The following week a door knocking exercise was carried out in Carthorse Lane, and roads there off, by Robin, Brandon, Gemma Moore and a couple of other residents plus David and Lynn Dallaway and Tisha Greenway. Residents were asked for their opinion on three options: –

 

  1. Block off Carthorse Lane with bollards where the chicane is currently situated, thus turning the road into two cul-de-sacs with access to the west via Blackwell Lane and to the east via Butlers Hill Lane.
  2. Modify the chicane to make it more effective of causing vehicles to slow down (it is currently possible for drivers to negotiate it without slowing down or having to turn their steering wheel).
  3. Do nothing and leave things as they are.

Robin Lunn is currently evaluating the results of the opinion poll.

 

Deep dip in the pavement near to Rhymes Nursery:

Following our last meeting in February, Sylvia Collinson emailed pictures of the dip to Robin Lunn. He was under the impression that the pavement had been investigated and repaired. We told him that it had not and he will now report back to the Highways Department and get this looked at.

 

Murder Mystery Evening:

Stephen Siddle had discussed with the Alvechurch Dramatic Society, of whom he is a member, the possibility of our being able to invite members to a Murder Mystery Evening. David Dallaway had expressed reservations about holding this event solely for Association members as around 70 attendees would be required to make it viable. Historically we have struggled to obtain good turn outs at our quizzes, AGMs and litter picks. However it was felt it would be an attractive proposition if we could combine the evening with one or more other organisations. The performance would be held at the Alvechurch Village Hall in February next year. We are hoping that this will be of interest to our members as it will be an enjoyable and good fund raising event.

Quiz Night:

We discussed holding the annual Quiz Night in October again. James Doble said that he would be able to provide a sound system and David Dallaway said that he could provide the quiz questions. Some of the profits arise from our bar and snacks sales and we will therefore stress to members attending that there will be no admittance to people bringing in their own food and drinks. Julie Vincent will organise the booking of the Batchley Community Centre.

 

A.O.B.

Nobody had any further issues to raise.

Actions from this meeting:

  • Pattie Hill to request a litter bin for the pathway adjacent to Greenford Close.
  • Pattie Hill to request the blocking in of the gap under the gate at the top of the stairs in the Nature Reserve.
  • Pattie Hill to seek clarification from Ruth Bamford as to whether the Nature Reserve has now been adopted.
  • Sylvia Collinson to investigate whether her son could provide a copy of the parking covenant governing Pointers Way residents.
  • Brandon Clayton to raise with Persimmon our concerns regarding the delay in the building of the new Holyoakes Field First School.
  • Emma Fletcher to meet with Stephen Siddle’s contact David and Sylvia Collinson’s son Jules regarding the website hosting.
  • Brandon Clayton to enquire with Persimmon about the current position regarding the sale of land to Carthorse Lane and Longmoor Close residents whose houses back on to current waste land.
  • Robin Lunn to pursue with the Highways Department the repair of the deep dip on the pathway by Rhymes Nursery.
  • Julie Vincent to book the Batchley Community Centre for the Quiz Night

The meeting ended at 9.25 pm.

The next meeting will be held on Thursday August 24th. This will mainly be to discuss further arrangements for the Quiz Night.