The constitution of the Community Group requires an Annual General Meeting to be called within six months of the Group’s financial year-end, which is 31^st March each year. The constitution also requires a “report of activity during the year” to be produced – this is that report.

The report for the year 2002/03 describes, then, how the Community Group was established, how the committee members and officers were appointed and their principal activities to the 31^st March 2003.

It describes the challenges presented to the Group and how they were confronted; it highlights the efforts made by the committee to promote the work of the Group on behalf of the residents of Wilford; it identifies the working relationships established with external bodies and it documents the challenges for the forthcoming year.

The report does not itemise residents’ priorities for the Group for the next twelve months – a consultation exercise at the beginning of 2003 identified crime and vandalism as the main priorities for the committee at that time. This was addressed by the calling of a public meeting attended by the local Area Commander and Beat Manager from Nottinghamshire Police. Whilst there is still work to be carried out establishing working relationships between the constabulary and the Community Group (and the committee continues to work on this), the committee now needs guidance from residents on its priorities to improve the amenities and environment of Wilford, and this includes advice from residents on major fundraising activities for the year.

All committee members volunteered their time without a personal, hidden agenda. That is not to say that committee members did not have their own, personal priorities, but these have always been for the best interest of Wilford as a whole. Committee meetings have been characterised by healthy (and often lengthy) debate, culminating in a consensus of all committee members. It is worth noting in this report that no formal vote has ever been required in committee meetings.

History of Wilford Community Group

In September 2002, Nottingham City Council called an open meeting for Wilford residents to determine the likely level of support for a Tenants and Residents Association. From the 850 or so residential addresses in Wilford, over 100 people attended a lively meeting in the Church Hall with many views expressed on how best to improve the environment and amenities of Wilford.

At the end of the meeting, a number of residents volunteered to form a committee and the residents present endorsed these volunteers.

On Thursday 28th November 2002, a meeting led by Lesley Lowe of the City Council Housing Department appointed the officers of the committee and the first meeting of the Wilford Community Group took place on Thursday 12th December 2002.

At the first committee meeting, the constitution and objectives of the Group were agreed; the constitution states that the principal objective of the Group is to "promote tenants' and residents' interests and campaign for improvements to their housing conditions, services and environment".

The Community Group is registered with the Nottingham City Council Housing Department from whom start-up funding was received. Being registered with the City Council allows the Group to be co-opted onto the City Council's Clifton and Wilford Area Committee. Despite funding links with the City Council, the Community Group is NOT a political organisation and all members act for the good of Wilford as a whole.

The inaugural committee consisted of eleven Wilford residents – Sheila Atherton, David Boulton, Mike Cathcart, Brian Clark, Kate Clark, Brendan Clarke-Smith, Josie Foster, Ann Mason, Reverend David Rowe, Jonathan Shewell-Cooper and Roger Steel. David Boulton was elected to the post of Chairman; Roger Steel Vice Chairman and Sheila Atherton Treasurer. Mike Cathcart volunteered to act as Secretary for a period of six months until a suitable volunteer came forward. Due to ill health, Mike was unable to continue in the rôle of Secretary and this was taken up by the Chairman. Ann Mason resigned from the committee due to other commitments and Brendan Clarke-Smith resigned following his election as Councillor for the Clifton North ward of the City Council. This is the appropriate point to thank all those people for their contributions.

Achievements

Website

From the outset, the committee wanted to exploit the World Wide Web as a tool for providing relevant and timely information to residents and also to people outside the area who might be looking for information about Wilford. It was also considered an appropriate tool for raising funds for the Group by providing advertising space to local businesses.

Three local businesses (Books About You, TRENT CONNECTION the Dance Band and Bike Tours UK) have made donations to the Group in return for advertising space.

Area Committee

The Community Group has been co-opted onto the Clifton and Wilford Area Committee of the City Council and a nominated committee member attends the meetings run by Clifton North and Clifton South City Councillors. At the first open meeting of the Community Group committee, a representative of the Area Committee gave a talk outlining various approaches the Community Group could make to their activities and fundraising. It was identified at an early stage that Community notice boards should be acquired and the committee is working with the Area Committee to secure these.

Group Finances

The Treasurer has spent a great deal of time setting up a Community Group bank account and securing start-up funding from the Housing Department of the City Council. The accounts of the Group will also show a sum of £20 from donations by local businesses for website advertising.

The start-up grant from the City Council is meant to be used during the first year of operation for the purposes of publicity and the cost of hiring rooms to hold committee meetings and public meetings. The Community Group has been fortunate to secure the use of a room at Nottingham Moderns Rugby Football Club without charge and have sometimes been able to call on local businesses for low-cost or no-cost copying of newsletters. This is an appropriate point, therefore, to formally thank The Boots Company PLC for copying the second Community Group newsletter without charge.

It is fortunate that all committee members have Internet access and email addresses, which means that agendas and minutes can be distributed electronically so the cost of photocopying and phone calls is kept to a minimum.

The committee is now relying on residents to provide suggestions for one or more major projects towards which its fundraising activities can be directed to the benefit of the residents of Wilford.

Consultation

From the outset, the committee acknowledged the need for residents to direct the committee’s actions according to their own priorities rather than those of the committee members. A consultation exercise was carried out in January this year and although the number of feedback forms returned was disappointing (despite the incentive of winning a bottle of champagne), the overwhelming majority of respondents considered crime, vandalism, graffiti, traffic speed reduction, policing and drugs to be the most important issues. The committee decided to call a public meeting, giving residents the opportunity to put questions to the Constabulary’s Local Area Commander and Wilford Beat Manager. This was a well-attended meeting with a full and frank discussion – the committee continues to work on building up its relationship with the Beat Manager to improve the advice and information available to residents.

In late February 2003, representations were made to the committee by a number of residents regarding the status of the footpath between “Looking Good” and the sewage pumping station. This became the first opportunity for the committee to consult residents on a contentious issue within the community. This was carried out during the March meeting of the committee at which all interested residents were able to make their point. The objective of the consultation was to make a proposal to the City Council that would be supported publicly by the Community Group and following residents representations the committee agreed on a way forward that recognised the wishes of the majority whilst taking into accounts the concerns of the minority.

In general, the committee is always open to consultation from residents. This can be done either at the regular Community Group meetings, via email to the Community Group committee or by direct contact. In addition, the website provides a discussion forum to which any resident with Internet access can contribute.

External Relationships

At an early stage, the committee recognised that it would need to build relationships with external parties, especially departments within the City Council for planning and environmental issues and also groups such as the Environment Agency and Nottingham Express Transit.

The committee obtains the weekly list of planning applications made within Wilford and this information is published weekly on the website. Using this information it has made its views known to the Development Control department of the City Council. Whilst the committee recognises that it is unlikely to prevent major developments (such as that proposed for Wilford House Sports Ground) it can make its views known and residents have made it clear to the committee that this rôle should continue in order to preserve the credibility of the Group. The committee is always willing to discuss residents’ views of planning applications and will make representations to the City Council on their behalf. This may have been effective with regard to the Fixings House development where the committee objected on the grounds of inappropriate design of the housing even though a similar design had already been used in Regents Close. This objection came about as a direct response to a communication received from a Wilford resident.

Although the Community Group was established too late to influence the Bellway Homes development next to Wilford Green, the committee is working with Bellway to make certain environmental improvements such as maintaining sight lines to the Church and improving the road safety aspects of the entrances to the site.

As a result of the consultation regarding the embankment footpath, a good relationship has been established with the appropriate department at the City Council and a number of meetings have been held to ensure that the proposed work to the embankment is carried out to the best interests of Wilford and its residents. This good relationship has been carried over into discussions regarding the adoption of footpaths off Holly Avenue.

The committee has also worked successfully with the Road Safety department to have the now redundant fluorescent signs and flashing lights removed from Main Road.

Initial contacts have been established with NET who have added Wilford Community Group to their list of interested parties who are included in any communications and consultations about the tram. The significance of this will be shown during the forthcoming public consultation exercise.

Challenges

Inclusion

Since the very beginning, the Community Group committee has heard statements of complaint by certain residents about the “Vernon Avenue” nature of the committee. The committee has always been embarrassed by this, but it is worth reiterating that this has come about simply because these were the residents who volunteered to give up their time for the Group. Whenever those residents make their complaints, they are always invited to join the committee – none has accepted that invitation.

The AGM is an ideal opportunity for residents to learn about the Community Group and we would encourage any interested residents to seek election to the committee during the AGM. To be at its most effective, the committee must be seen to represent all parts of Wilford, both geographically and demographically. Residents living in the Ruddington Lane/St Austell Drive area are particularly encouraged to join, as are the younger residents of Wilford. Every resident who lives within the Community Group boundaries is eligible to sit on the committee, regardless of age or any other criteria.

Website

The content of the website grew very quickly, but it has proved difficult to persuade residents to use the site as their first source of information about Wilford or to provide input to the committee about what content they would like to see on the site. This has been demonstrated by the low number of times the site has been accessed. In order to justify the time spent updating the content of the site, ways will need to be found to encourage residents to use the site, perhaps by running competitions related to website content.

Letters were sent to many local shops inviting them to advertise on the web site, but no replies were received. The Group has purchased the website name for an initial period of two years at minimal cost and there is currently no cost to maintain and update the content of the site. Hosting of the site is also free of charge. It may be more appropriate to target businesses individually, explaining in person the benefits of using the website – this could be for advertising or, in the case of, say, takeaway food establishments, holding their menus on the site for the mutual benefit of the business and residents.

The relatively low number of committee members and their normal day-to-day commitments have prevented a significant amount of work being carried out in this area.

Area Committee

There remains some work to establish the Community Group as an active member of the Area Committee. To this end, the current Vice Chairman represents the Group at the Area Committee meetings. It is still not clear how the Area Committee can be exploited to the best interests of Wilford.

Sub-committees

The full committee meets on a monthly basis. These meetings are open to all residents and because discussion can become drawn-out, meetings usually close between 10:15 and 10:45. Monthly meetings also mean that there is often an unnecessary delay for decisions to be made. To speed up progress of the activities of the Committee, the meeting of 1^st May 2003 agreed in principal to create three sub-committees called “Young People”, “Planning and Development” and “Fundraising”. These committees, plus others, if the number of committee members increases, will work between the full committee meetings, making decisions and taking actions that will allow them to work more quickly and more effectively. They will then report back to the full committee meeting.

Moving Faster

A motion to amend the Group’s constitution to allow closed committee meetings is included in the agenda for the AGM and the current committee urges residents to vote in favour of the motion. There are no ulterior motives for this change, and the constitutional requirement to hold at least six open meetings a year will be met. Experience has shown that after initial good attendances at committee meetings by residents, the last two meetings have seen no residents attend. Much of the committee meeting’s time is taken up with general discussion and the meetings usually finish after 10:30 in the evening. The purpose of the closed committee meetings is to allow the committee to progress the more mundane business of the Group; minutes of these meetings will be published so that any decisions made are open. It is proposed that the open meetings, which we shall call Community Group meetings, will not have a fixed agenda and will operate on a “surgery” basis. Committee members will be present and we hope that at least one of our City Councillors will also be available for consultation. Any requests made by residents to the committee will then be taken to the next closed meeting where the practicalities of resolving the issue can be discussed.

Fundraising

As mentioned earlier, the committee is now relying on residents to provide suggestions for one or more major projects towards which its fundraising activities can be directed to the benefit of the residents of Wilford. The committee is investigating the feasibility of obtaining a Community Allotment and whether this can be turned into recreational facility for the residents of Wilford. If the committee pursues this, significant funds will be required for development and equipment. The committee welcomes any suggestions from residents for similar fundraising activities.

Summary

In summary, although Wilford Community Group has been in existence for seven months, this report covers just the first three months. In those three months, a lot has been achieved, particularly relating to the establishment of the Group and the building of links with external bodies.

The main challenges for the year ahead are to improve communications with residents (and this will be achieved when the community notice boards are erected) and to direct efforts towards fundraising activities for significant improvements to Wilford.

The Community Group will only be as good as the support it gets from residents and the committee will rely on, and seek out views from residents to determine it priorities.

Appendices

Appendix 1 - Annual Accounts

For the period 12^th December 2002 to 31^st March 2003

The set-up of the bank account was completed in early March 2003 with cheque signatories of comprising:

Sheila Atherton (Treasurer)

David Boulton (Chairman)

Roger Steel (Vice-Chair)

Michael Cathcart (Secretary at that time)

There have been two sources of income, the main one being a start-up grant of £500 from the City Council. In addition there were two donations in the year for business advertising on the website.

Expenditure has been kept to a minimum, the only major item being £40 for the printing of our first newsletter.

The bank balance at the end of March was £435.11.

The accounts were audited on 19th May 2003 by Deborah Rivers ACMA.

A summary of income and expenditure is provided below.

INCOME		EXPENDITURE

Start-Up Grant	£500.00	Printing	£40.00
Website Advertising	£ 20.00	Other publicity	£14.08
Total Income	£520.00	Room Hire	£10.00
		Stationery	£19.21
		Travel	£ 1.60
		Total Expenditure	£84.89

Surplus of Income over Expenditure £435.11

Made up of:

Community Group Bank Account £435.11

Appendix 2 – History of Committee Officers

Date

Chairman

Vice Chairman

Secretary

Treasurer

2002/03

David Boulton

Roger Steel

Mike Cathcart (part)

Sheila Atherton

Chairman

Contents

INCOME

EXPENDITURE

Total Income

Total Expenditure