PRESENT: Chair Karen Leakey, Secretary Kevin Leakey, Minute Secretary John Phillips, John Banville, Karen Coulthard, Stella Edwards, Pam Freegard, Tim French, Elizabeth Grady, Kate Johnson, Alan Jones, Mr and Mrs Mason, Rebecca McIntosh, Sue Osbaldstone, Val Purvis, Ros Timlin.
ALSO PRESENT: John Taylor, Councillor Derique Montaut and Chris Hunt SBC Community Manager.
APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE: Celia Cotton, John and Vi Clark, John Freegard, Olive Hitchcock,
Pam Montgomery, Derek and Madge Sutton.
CONFIRMATION OF THE MINUTES – 3rd September 2008 meeting.
These Minutes were confirmed and signed a true record. Proposed John Phillips and seconded by Val Purvis.
MATTERS ARISING FROM THE SEPTEMBER MINUTES: Broad Street Trust update. John Phillips gave a brief synopsis on the history of the Trust: Hambro Life (now Zurich) purchased the old Church of Christ in Broad Street and gave it to the Community Council to run as a community centre. If this became an unfeasible proposition, as happened when Swindon Council opened up the Broadgreen Centre, the building was to be sold off and all monies raised (approx. £60k) were to be held in trust for Broadgreen residents. Several stipulations were put in place concerning the distribution of the monies: any projects put forward must benefit the whole community and not individual groups and no project may be funded that could be funded by any other body or organisation.
Replies have been received from the following Trustees concerning the current position of the Trust:
Father Leslie: by email – He has recently been talking to other trustees and has offered to talk to Charity Commissioners. As far as he is concerned they have not yet decided to wind up the Trust, despite what Charities Commission says. The bank accounts are still open at the Swindon branch of HSBC.
Doreen Gordon: by phone - after Father Leslie moved away it was decided not to continue with the Trust, she did not know the community needed to be informed of this decision, nor who should be informed and as far as she was aware the money was still in the HSBC bank. She was also in possession of the Trusts paperwork, given to her by Father Leslie but she no longer wished to be involved with the Trust. Doreen has passed the Trusts paper work over to the BSACC for safekeeping until such time as new Trustees are in place.
Graham Jenkins: Was not aware the Trust had ceased to operate, he was a trustee and went to meetings when called to do so. When Hugh Fisher (former Treasurer) passed away 3 or 4 years ago, Father Leslie took on the role of treasurer as well as secretary. Doreen Gordon became Chair after Mrs Marney’s resignation. The trust was not quorate so Father Leslie suggested Mrs McCue be asked. The last communication Graham had had with Father Leslie, was a chance meeting in County Road when he was informed of the donation for the trees at the Broadgreen Centre. In June 2007 the Chair, Doreen, contacted him because Father Leslie had moved away and handed all the paper work over to her, and as far as she was aware, Mrs McCue had not been registered as a Trustee. Graham has no contact details for Doreen and apart from going to her place of work to pass on Father Leslie’s address has heard nothing more about the Trust since.
Jo McCue: No reply.
Charities commission: No reply
Although the money is still in the accounts, there continues to be some confusion about what is happening to the Trust. Last August (2007) Father Leslie informed the Chair that he was no longer a trustee, but from his recent email, it would appear he is still involved.
As the BSACC is still holding Trust funds from the unused donation for trees, it was questioned whether we could use it for the community garden instead? Graham Jenkins had said he felt it would be a good way of spending this because it was much the same as the reason it was originally given, but this will need further investigation.
When Les Horn was still Chair, it was Father Leslie's wish to distribute the monies by possibly passing it over to the community towards a new rebuild of the Community Centre. But it is very difficult for the money to be spent on things that are the Boroughs responsibility and things that will benefit the whole of the community.
Cllr. Montaut believes the way it was wound up was clearly wrong, having not informed the Charities Commission, and felt it may be useful to contact the Borough Solicitor Stephen Taylor to ask for some assistance to see if the money could be obtained for the Community Council.
COMMUNITY POLICE REPORT: No Police present at meeting.
GUEST SPEAKER: Chris Hunt SBC. There are problems with parking, not just at the Broadgreen Centre, but also at all of the Borough sites. People are increasingly using various sites for free car parking, preventing users/hirers of the buildings from parking there themselves, which they would like to stop.
At the Broadgreen, the site is shared with Children’s Services; this used to be a Resource Centre with 4 staff, but is now used as offices with approx. 20 staff. The car park is however private, being connected to the Broadgreen Centre.
Signs can be erected stating that the car park is only for the use of hirers and the gates will be closed when not in use. When this has been tried previously, people who have found their cars locked in have either removed the padlock or have called someone from the team out, to open the gates. A fine cannot be given for this, but a call out charge can be imposed if it is in the middle of the night. Because it is a private car park, the traffic wardens cannot police the parking there and if it is altered to a public car park, with pay and display, users of the centre may end up with no car parking spaces at all.
A clamping company could be employed, which would not cost the Borough money, as the clampers would keep the fine money, but would mean extra administrative work for caretakers, who would have to give out passes to hirers of the centre, which could cause problems because how would spaces be fairly allocated to the various users?
A number of ideas were put forward, including: A big sign saying parking for centre users only, which may deter some. Improved enforcement or an enforcement officer specifically for Borough car parks attached to Centres like the Broadgreen. Stickers put on windscreens by caretakers, pointing out that people have no authority to park here unless using the centre. People could book car park places when hiring rooms.
What SBC would like to do initially, bearing in mind it is a very small car park and there is never enough parking spaces, and also to try and avoid lots of added admin. and costs to the budget, Is to put up signs warning that it is a private car park and that the gates will be locked at night (with a substantial bolt cropper proof lock), and a charge will be imposed to get vehicle out, when locked up. If this doesn’t work it will have to be looked at further. Also being considered is moving the paper and bottle banks to the Gladstone Street side of the car park for easier access when gates are locked.
With regards to parking, it was voiced from a number of people, that they had witnessed an increase in people using the car park and going shopping, as well as seeing the 2-hour bays in the area being used for the same thing.
CORRESPONDENCE:
Letters/emails sent:
Parochial Church Council (PCC) to arrange a meeting to put the views forward concerning the BBC and DHI who are working from St. Luke’s Church hall. - No reply
Thamesdown Transport, to find out if the Hatts coach that park in Manchester Road at the bus stop causes problems for scheduled bus services and if they can park there.
Request to SBC for more visitors parking tickets, now that scheme has been extended to 10pm.
Reported the hedge in Gladstone Street at side of children’s centre that needs cutting back.
Reported of overgrowing shrubs/plants at rear of Shrivenham Road- County Ground Extension. – All maintenance work is carried out in the autumn and winter unless it is dangerous.
Reported that people are now driving through the Streets For Living roads at more than 20 mph, can anything be done? No reply
Reported Cars and lorries are still going down Shrivenham Road then having to turn back. This is a particular problem for lorries that have to reverse back down it. Could there be a sign that makes it clearer it is a dead end road? No reply
Contacted Father Leslie and 3 Trustees to find out about the situation of the Broad Street Trust and the monies that are held. Also send a copy to the letter to the Charities Commission.
Replies:
Thamesdown Transport – Hatts coaches parking in Manchester Rd. - No problems have been reported from their drivers. Hatts coaches can pick up and drop off passengers but cannot wait at the bus stop due to parking restrictions.
SBC Residents Parking – Not sure what referring to concerning the extended hours! Council are looking at making some of limited waiting bays available in the evenings for residents to use. Bathurst Road being one of them. The visitors scratch cards are issued for use between 8 am and 10 pm in all residential parking zones and there are no plans to increase the amount allocated to residents.
PLANNING APPLICATIONS
* S/COND/08/1772 - 123 Manchester Road - Variation of condition 3 from planning permission S/05/3019 to vary trading hours to 08.00 - 00.00 on any day - Application Pending Consideration –BSACC Objected
S/08/1493 - 108 County Road - Conversion of 1 no. dwelling into 3 no. residential units and provision of single storey rear extension - Application Withdrawn
S/ADV/08/1193 - Swindon Town Football Club - Display of a ticket sales board - Application Withdrawn
S/08/1191 - Swindon Town Football Club - Display of a tickets sales board - Application Withdrawn
S/08/1190 - Swindon Town Football Club - Erection of 8no. hospitality boxes - Application Withdrawn
S/08/1549 - 127 County Road - Change of Use of 1no. dwelling into 2 no. flats - Application Granted.
S/08/1500 - 18 Shrivenham Road - Erection of single storey side extension - Application Granted
S/08/1455 - 26 Medgbury Road - Erection of two-storey/single storey rear extension - Application Refused
S/ADV/08/1169 - 57 County Road - Display of Advertising Board (Retrospective).- Application Refused
* With regards to the application at 123 Manchester Rd. to extend the opening hours, some considerable concern was shown about this because the Kebab Shop in Manchester Rd. should close at 11 pm but never does, and there is considerable noise and rubbish already generated, particularly after midnight by people using the eating facilities after being in the pubs along the bottom of town.
TREASURERS REPORT. August 2008: The treasurer was absent and filed no report for this meeting.
SHRIVENHAM ROAD REPORT: No report.
CHAIR REPORT:
·
Maps showing the area the DPPO now covers were given out.
·
The funding the BSACC applied for in conjunction with Community Coach Doug Imrie to help young people in this area with their football was turned down, this was very disappointing because it was from the fund ‘Let’s Kick Racism out of Football’
·
We put a request in to SBC to see if the Community Council could use the office at the Broadgreen, vacated by the S4L project, as a room for storing paperwork, archive material and bits for the community garden as well as a room for small meetings. However our request was turned down due to the fact that the Community Development Team need it for service delivery, they do work here, but already have an office at the Council!
·
We were unsuccessful in our £500 bid for the ‘Quality of Life’ awards, but we did receive a certificate.
·
The Community Grants application for 2009/2010 is very complicated and has to be submitted by 30/11/08. We need to have a meeting with the committee regarding the filling in of this application, because the outcomes have to meet certain criteria connected with the delivery of the Local Area Agreement (LAA). It would seem the Council want communities to do far more of the work that they should be doing themselves, but by making community groups do the work for them, it saves considerable money and helps meet the LAA. Many of the grants the third sector (voluntary) have applied for in the past are now being applied for by Councils, who are advantaged by having professional people to do this. Cllr. Montaut said the support given to community groups from grant officers, who previously helped with applications, had been cut and now groups were expected to become more independent and stand on their own. There is now a pot of money that needs to be managed around that pot, rather than meeting the needs of groups.
·
Swindon Disabled People’s Coalition has an Open Event 04/10/08, 11am – 3 pm at the Haydon Centre.
· Big Lottery Awards For All event takes place at The Pilgrim Centre, on 10/10/08, 10 - 12noon – the Chair will be attending.
·
Wiltshire Criminal Justice Board has a Community Engagement Conference in Devizes on 23/10/08. 9am – 2pm
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There is a Restorative Justice event in Swindon at the Civic Offices, on 13/10/08, 9.30 am – 2pm.
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The Police now have a dedicated Vice Officer, working with the burglary squad. This post was created because of the pressure put on Chief Superintendent Paul Howlett by residents at the prostitution meeting, organised by the BSACC back in July.
·
Skeetz Youth Club will re-open next week.
·
Swindon Strategic Partnership Conference was to be in December but has now been changed to February 2009, One of the main focuses will be Connecting People/Connecting Places.
·
With regards to Connecting People-Connecting Places, the Neighbourhood Renewal Task Group (NRTG), (on which the Broadgreen Area has representation) had sent a letter to NRTG ward Councillors and Rod Bluh outlining the concerns about this document as it didn’t go out to consultation, but instead was taken to the Strategic Partnership, and had requested a 90 day consultation period. Unfortunately the only reply was an acknowledgement of the letter, so MP Michael Wills has taken up the case.
· There is a Government HMO report passed on by SBC planner David Dewart, a copy of which was passed around the meeting.
· Doug Imrie has said there is a pot of funding money from the Lifestyle Development team from the Lifestyle Centre at the County Ground, and groups can put in bids between £500 and £2000 to put on any keep fit/physical activities in the community. We will be looking into this.
· Holly Huber had emailed a report – but for some reason it didn’t get through.
· We will be organising another Christmas meal for the Community Council, for anybody who may be interested.
· STFC have given their second kit from last season to the Goan U15’s football team and were invited to the County Ground today, for a tour and official handing over of the kit. The Chair was also invited along.
· The next Community Plan meeting will be on the 15th October at 6.30 pm. A steering committee will be formed and everyone who has an interest in the future of this area is encouraged to attend.
YOUTH REPORT: No report.
HISTORY PROJECT REPORT: Swindon Voices is still a live project with Community Radio 105.5, although nothing has been recorded yet. Really big news is John has had a couple of meetings with staff at Drove School concerning the road names project, where pupils will be researching the history of the road names in the Broadgreen Area. About 50 pupils from year 5 will be starting this after half term and the teachers are currently seeing how this will fit in with the national curriculum. During half term there will be a visit to Liddington because Karen Coulthard came across a newspaper article from 1919, recording the fact that three young lads were killed at Liddington Hill, what ties it to this area is the lads all came from Medgbury Road. Because John spent 2 years as Parish Clerk at Liddington, he knows that Parish Council minutes are held going back to 1919 and beyond, and feels sure that within those minutes there will be a report of the incident. Liddington also have a millennium embroidery with the names of all people living there and John is aware the Caribbean Ladies are planning an embroidery so this idea may fit in with them.
Concerning the road names, there is some confusion as to how Alfred Street was named. It could be after a local builders son or one of Queen Victoria’s sons.
Tim had noticed an article in the Adver that said part of Manchester Road was originally called Mill Street; this was actually the original name for the part of Manchester Road between Corporation Street and Aylesbury Street, which then joined on to Milford Street. John Phillips said his Grandparents lived at 126 Manchester Road and there was a blacksmiths shop in Carlton Street.
NEIGHBOURHOOD WATCH REPORT: Nothing to report.
WARD COUNCILLORS REPORT, COUNCILLOR MONTAUT:
· The Councillor is a member of the Fire Authority, and due to the Government saying that security is currently not good enough because of the terrorist threats, the Control Rooms of 7 Authorities in the South West Region may be moving into one building, which will be in Taunton and will be a high security building, with its own water and food supply should any emergency arise. All 7 Authorities need to agree to this for it to happen. Wiltshire’s control room is currently shared with the Police and Ambulance Service in Devizes, and if this happens Swindon may make some savings, but was concerned that we could be subsidising Cornwall for example and if fire vehicles were to be called away from Swindon, would we have enough cover here?
It was felt that most people would be mainly concerned about the effect this would have on response times in this area, Councillor Montaut said that in the Central Area there is a greater fire risk because of the type of properties – terraced housing and density of population and what is now being looked at, is where the fire stations are located and if they are in the right place to cope with Swindon’s future growth.
· A meeting has been arranged with Chris Sivers to discuss the problems with the Breakfast Club that have been raised at the BSACC meetings.
· ‘Area panels’ are being set up that will see School Heads, Councillors and local community groups sitting on regional bodies that will encompass 2 to 3 Wards with a Director who will service it. Central and Eastcott will be one of them and he does not object to this hub because some of them cover 3 or 4 Wards. The next stage will be devolving a budget to enable communities to collectively prioritise what’s important and required in their areas.
· We the BSACC have been told School Heads will be chairing the meetings and he has been told it will be Councillors, so is unsure about this. It was questioned whether Head Teachers would actually know enough about an area and that people who live in an area would be the ones who knew what was going on.
· It was pointed out to Councillor Montaut that what he was talking about was ‘Connecting People, Connecting Places’ and it was felt that the Council had pushed on with this and had not consulted enough with residents, it should not be trusted and it will be the beginning of the end for communities, as the people who work on the ground will become fed up with fighting, rather than getting thing done because they would have been forced to take on all the responsibilities from the Council, whilst being fully answerable to them and they would simply walk away. Without those people working on the ground, it will leave Head Teachers and Councillors with the powers to be in charge of communities instead of the residents themselves.
· Councillor Montaut said the intention was to enable communities to be more powerful in determining what their priorities are, but in practice, he may share the concerns shown.
· With regards to the Mosque parking problems, at the Tasking Meeting, Members and Community Leaders raised residents concerns about the random parking and abuse of parking regulations. Councillor Montaut has been put under pressure from the Mosque for some provision to be made for parking when people are praying, but they (Members) have made it very clear that there is only one community and have informed the enforcement officers this is how it’s got to be, and if enforcement have problems because people are agitated being given tickets etc, then may be he will go around there and explain why it’s reasonable and sensible for everybody in the area to be treated equally.
· It was asked how long the problems had been going on, why it had been allowed to get so big and if cars are being ticketed now? It has been a problem since the Broad Street Mosque opened when it was thought there might have been an arrangement to use B&Q car park, however after much badgering of the Council it was admitted that a special arrangement had been reached to allow them parking in this area, which wasn’t fair on everybody else but now cars are being ticketed. Councillor Montaut felt that this good news was a success and even if there should have been enforcement in the past, we should make sure it works now.
· There then followed a short discussion about the Mosques hope of moving to a new site in Osborne Street. It was the understanding that the Council could not sell land cheaper than it’s market value, as this had come up once before when Queenstown School was going to be sold cheap for a Mosque, but it was deemed that this could not be done. Councillor Montaut said they could sell land at up to 25% less than market value if selling to any religious groups, Councillor Montaut also said he would clarify this for the next meeting. It was the understanding from one resident that the Muslim Community had wanted to have a Mosque at Queenstown School but there had been a split in the community, with one group taking over the Broad Street Mosque and the other group going to the Mosque in Manchester Road meaning that when the split came there wasn’t enough money to buy the land.
STREET WATCH REPORT: No report.
ANY OTHER BUSINESS:
· Drinkers are still drinking and leaving loads of mess in the alley behind Manchester Road, they hide in the openings into garages and any police passing the alleys cannot see them. Some of the DPPO signs have also been broken off. It was also of some concern that a number of street drinkers, who had been given ASBO’s and banned from the town centre, may now come to the Broadgreen Area instead.
· Dogs are being allowed to run around on the Broadgreen football/basketball pitch area, can signs be put up banning dogs from here, as it is a play area?
· Why has the new fence in Salisbury Street, around the Broadgreen not been completed? There seems to be 2 panels missing.
Meeting closed at 9.35 pm. Date of next meeting: Wednesday 05 November 2008
