18th January 2011

__NOINDEX__ WELLS WAY TRIANGLE RESIDENTS ASSOCIATION

Minutes of the Committee Meeting held on 18th January 2011

Attending: Jenny Bentall(Chair), Christophe Gueraud, David Frost(Treasurer) Mike Morris, Tessa Brown (Garden Group) Richard Llewellyn-Davies, Andrew Osborne, Jenny Jones

4.1.Southampton Way Road Danger Reduction Proposals
Councillors have still not replied to the association’s letters written on the 10th December sent by Jenny Bentall about the proposals. This was based on responses from residents to the proposals at the meeting on the 7th December and included the request for additional zebra crossings and improved measures for safety of cyclists.

Jenny Bentall received a copy of the consultation report written by Sharada Kalakheti from John Friary which details the methodology and results of the consultation. Only a 5% response rate from individuals was achieved and on the back of this the response document recommends proceeding with the proposals. The report made almost no mention of the well attended meeting of local residents convened by us on 7th Dec nor to the response that we sent in.

Jenny B is to write to local councillors, Ian Wingfield, John Friary and Norma Gibbes with copy in Jenny Jones and Val Shawcross about the council’s failure to respond to the association and asking for a response to the letter.

4.2.Southampton Way shop fronts
Individual letters have been sent by residents to planning officers regarding the planned shop fronts redevelopment and Jenny B sent a response on behalf of the Association reflecting the points made at the meeting on 7th Dec. The bins and rubbish outside these shops was also raised as a concern at the meeting.

The manager of Coral said that shopkeepers have already put in their bids for amounts that they will need to fund shopfront redevelopments.

An issue was raised about the rubbish dumped outside Costcutter on Southampton Way and pallets being left for collection. "The issue of rubbish and hoardings will be included in Jenny Bentall’s letter to Councillor Ian Wingfield."

4.3.149 Southampton Way
Jenny Bentall has also sent a short letter to planning officers expressing the association’s support for the planned redevelopment of 149 Southampton Way expressed at the meeting.

5.Gardening Group
Tessa will be leading a gardening activity at 2pm this Saturday the 22nd January to plant the site left of the school gates outside the alleyway that cuts through past the school. Meeting at the school gates with tools.

On the 12th March there will be a window box action meeting. However the place is yet to be decided but posters will go up to advertise the event..

Tessa is planning to lead a window box making scheme using olive boxes, old scaffolding planks and other waste materials. Tessa will provide some seeds though donations of seeds will be appreciated. A food growing group is also being formed by the Friends of Burgess Park. We will ask the friends of Burgess Park for further information.

It was agreed that the Gardening Group would be a sub-group of the Association

6. The Controlled Parking Zone
An extra committee meeting had been called on 4th Jan 2011 to discuss whether we should act as an Association in relation to the consultation on CPZ, delivered to us on 16th Dec.

It was agreed that it was not appropriate for the Association to take a view on the issue of private car parking for residents – views varied widely in the area with some very strong feelings. It was agreed that we should send a note round to everyone encouraging them to express their views.

It was agreed that it was appropriate for us to make representations about the parking facilities proposed for businesses. As an association we have been trying to work with the Council to regenerate our shops etc and we felt that the proposed charges for parking near the shops would discourage passing trade. We cited arrangements in Bellenden and in Lordship Lane, where businesses have flourished with 30 mins free parking.

7.2.TRA status with Council Housing dept.
Kevin Skinner, the tenants support officer has informed us that £300 start up funding can be made available for new TRA’s. We would be required to change our constitution to include a clause stating that there would be at least 4 General Meetings each year, in order to be recognised by the council and so make a case for TRA status. The committee readily agreed to put an amendment to a General Meeting to this effect. We had already held 2 General Meetings and had plans for 2 more.

7.3. Finances
We have some money collected from the last community meeting. It was agreed that we should now open a bank account for the Association. David Frost will open an account with Nat West. It was agreed that David Frost, as treasurer, Jenny Bentall as Chair and Andrew Osborne as committee member should be signatories with 2 out of the 3 needed to sign any transaction, as per the constitution.

8.1 Burgess Park
The proposals have gone for planning. Donnachadh McCarthy had reported to us that he was reasonably happy with the changes to the plans that had been achieved.

8.2 Public Transport
There are two additional 343 buses in morning service according to TfL. They said that the 42 route has also been improved. It was agreed that the topic for our next General Meeting should be public transport for our area. Val Shawcross is keen to come to the next community meeting and this would be a good meeting for her to attend. It was agreed to approach other local associations who are also affected by these poor services.

8.3 Music from the school playground
Tom Tibbits has now heard from the school but we do not have the details. This will be followed up at the next meeting.

8.4.The wiki site
We will ask Kapie to put the last two sets of minutes on the Wiki site. Jenny will write a news letter up-dating residents of our actions, that can also be put on the site but will also have to be printed and distributed.

8.5.Improved street lighting on Rainbow Street
David Frost has received a letter about planned improvements to street lighting for Rainbow Street. David will write to the council about the type of lights requesting that they be environmentally conscious and aesthetically attractive.

=9. Date of next meetings= The next committee meeting will be on Tuesday the 15th February. We agreed that the next General Meeting on Public Transport would be either on the 22nd March or the 29th March – to give Val Shawcross a choice. The committee meeting after that will be on Tuesday 26th April Need to think about format for a summer General Meeting