Wilford Community Group

 

Minutes of the Committee Meeting

held on Monday 15th October 2007

at Wilford Social and Bowls Club

 

 

Present:            Brian Hardy (BH)                    Chairman                     

Roger Steel (RS)                  Vice Chair

                        Chris Allsopp (CA)                             

                        Sheila Atherton (SA)                Treasurer

                        Stephanie Taylor (ST)

                        Frank Wakelin (FW)

                                                                       

Diane Moore, Community Landscape Artist, Don Bulmer, Community Development Officer, PC Nigel Brown, Darren Tattersall and various other local residents and members of the Iremonger Pond steering group kindly attended the meeting.

           

 

 

Action

1

Apologies

Dave Boulton (DB), Bill Roughton (BR), Josie Foster (JF), Ed Armstrong

 

2

Iremonger’s Pond

The steering group met for the first time on 1.10.07 and a summary of the discussion had been circulated.  It was clarified that Diane had made an application for a grant of Ł2,000 from Community Champions not in her own name as the committee had understood but on behalf of WCG.  Any grant would come as a cheque to WCG and all expenditure would therefore need to be fully accounted for.  SA and BH made it clear that they would need to have proof of all expenditure and the committee will need to approve payments. The steering group must regularly report back to the main committee.

 

Diane and John Wood (Steering Group member) had met representatives of the Princes Trust at the pond.  Diane and John disagreed about the outcome of this meeting.  Diane had understood that there would be a further meeting between John and Princes Trust volunteers at the pond to discuss what tasks they might undertake.  John, however, found himself meeting 25 volunteers expecting to work at the pond. He was alone with no plan and no equipment or support from WCG.  WCG committee members were totally unaware of this meeting.  The volunteers had gone away disappointed and saying the Princes Trust would be reluctant to involve themselves any further.

 

BH and others reported that fences had been knocked down at the pond and there was still lots of rubbish.  The trench to the river was about 3ft. deep with extremely steep sides.  The water level in the pond was down by about 8” and the reeds were drying out already.  Some members thought the group should ask the Environment Agency how they intend to protect children from the danger of falling in to the trench.  Julian Taylor (Steering Group member) agreed to approach them.

 

Darren Tattersall told the meeting that bins are available to be erected around the pond site.  John Wood agreed to strim under the trees and collect the rubbish.  He will arrange with Darren to have it collected.

 

The next meeting of the Steering Group is on Monday 5 November 2007, 7.30 at the Bowls Club.  Don Bulmer had invited Anita Wood from the Environment Agency to attend the meeting.  She will bring drawings and plans for the group to see.  She believes the group can achieve its aim of improving the pond site but it will be a long slow process.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

JT

3

BH welcomed Maureen and Rob Godfrey to the meeting.  They live in Regent’s Place close to the Co-op.  They had many concerns about the maintenance of the area around Wilford Green and raised issues such as the number of vehicles visiting the Co-op, litter, including broken glass near the Maypole pub, bad behaviour around the Maypole, a car set on fire in the car park, litter problems caused by moving the recycling bins from the Co-op car park to the Maypole car park and now a building site operating next door to the store.  Some improvements had been paid for by the Co-op, although CCTV cameras requested as part of their refurbishment had not been installed.  Mr. and Mrs. Godfrey had met with the manager of the Co-op to discuss their concerns on several occasions and PC Nigel Brown also works with the manager.  Nigel told the meeting that the Maypole becomes a sort of Youth Club on Friday nights bringing with it problems associated with groups of young people out drinking.  The pub is due to close for refurbishment in January and they are trying to “design out” some of the problems.  The car park is too large to be covered entirely by CCTV cameras.  Nigel hoped that workers from an organisation called Endeavour who will be visiting the pub from Derby on 5 or 6 nights a week will bring some improvements to the behaviour of young people.  Darren said that calls could be made to the street cleansing hot line to request that glass be cleared up.  There should be a swift response.

 

Mrs. Godfrey made the point that Wilford Green is the first area visitors see as they approach Wilford along the A453 and that it is not currently very attractive.  SA suggested that Gleeds might be approached to sponsor some improvements to the area.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4

Your Choice Your Voice – Don Bulmer drew attention to this meeting on Wednesday this week (17 October) in Silverdale.  It is an opportunity to comment to Nottingham City Council on the local neighbourhood.  You can also go to www.thisisnottingham.co.uk and comment there.

 

    5

Matters Arising from Minutes of  Committee Meeting on 13 September 2007

 

- DB reported that he had had a response from Highways about road signs and road conditions. The damaged sign at the junction of Main Road and Bader Road has been replaced and they have confirmed that Church Drive is a council-adopted road which should be subject to the same maintenance and repair as other roads

 

- Wilford Library - Wilford Community Group has been working with the library to promote the Opening Hours Consultation exercise. Sheila Rowley (Library Manager) reports that the response was very good and she expressed her gratitude for our support - she had several forms that had been downloaded from the Wilford website. She will send the outcomes of the consultation when they have been collated. This has also been good for our website because it has resulted in a number of new subscribers to the (irregular) "Wilford News" email that DB sends out.  BH had received a letter from Councillor Dave Trimble who is the portfolio holder for Communities, Leisure and Culture.  He will be supporting WCG’s efforts and following developments.

 

-      Motorbikes and Quad Bikes - there was an incident in the village a couple of weeks ago where an illegal (i.e., no plates, no helmets) motorbike was being ridden along Main Road and a quad bike was being ridden on the road and across the Rugby pitches (while a match/practice was in progress). A resident managed to get photographs that were passed to Nigel. The riders were known to the Meadows police and a statement was made by the resident in question.  PC Nigel Brown reported that an incident of anti-social behaviour had been recorded as a result.

 

- NET – DB had received all NET's Proofs of Evidence on a CD. If anyone wants to have a look or copy the CD, please let him know. No news yet on when we are to appear at the Public Enquiry.

 

 

6

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

AOB

- Bee Bank Vegetation – DB had received an email from Pat Lister who lives near the end of the Bee Bank expressing concern that the Environment Agency had removed all the foliage from the river side of the Bee Bank without any notice to local residents. It was always envisaged that foliage would knit together to cover the concrete on the riverside and thus slow the flow of the river and contribute to preventing flooding.  She understands there may be plans to remove all foliage from the Bee Bank and return it to its concrete state.  A plain concrete bank is not only visually and environmentally unfriendly and possibly detrimental to the Village’s conservation status but would prove a dangerous attraction to children who, unseen behind the flood wall, will be able to reach the water’s edge. She asks that the WCG comment and perhaps try to find more information about plans to remove all foliage.  DB to write to the Environment Agency

   

-  Ammonia Tanks at Pork Farms – DB had received an email from John Wright saying he had been made aware that the staff at Pork Farms are being briefed on what to do if there is an Ammonia leak from the new storage tanks that are being installed at Pork Farms on Queens Drive. Their brief states that an alarm will sound within the factory and all personnel will congregate inside the factory as there is a serious risk to their health if they go outside if there is a leak. This raises the question how will this affect the residents of Wilford if the wind is in the wrong direction and will we get a warning?  DB to write to Pork Farms.

 

-  Cycle Barriers – FW showed the meeting pictures of various kinds of cycle barriers demonstrated at a recent local meeting.  Some were much more effective than others.

 

- Crime Figures – PC Brown reported that crimes in October to date were very slightly up on last year with 27 crimes committed in all in Wilford and Silverdale:  3 in Silverdale, 24 in Wilford.  One of these, unusually, had been a robbery from 3 students of Emmanuel School.  By comparison in the same period there had been 82 crimes in the 3 Clifton beats.  Overall, burglaries are down with a prolific burglar who was operating in August/September this year being arrested and detained.  PC Brown also told us that there is now a Police Community Support Officer dedicated to Wilford.

 

- Christmas Lights – RS had suggested requesting funding from Area 9 for lights to be put up along Main Road and on the Green in Wilford Village.  However, it is probably too late for this year but is an attractive idea for next year.

 

 

 

DB

 

The meeting closed at 21.45

 

The next meeting is at The Wilford Bowls and Social Club on Monday  19 November 2007                        at 7.30 p.m.

 

 

 

Approved…Brian Hardy…….(Chairman)      Date…………19th November 2007…………….