Albrighton Civic Society

Minutes of the Committee Meeting of the Albrighton & District Civic Society

held at Barclay Cottage, Albrighton, on Friday 9^th April 2010 at 2pm

Present : Rod Smith – Secretary (Chaired meeting in PW’s absence)

Hugh Hughes

Paul Joseland

Peter Leigh

Malcolm Pate

David Beechey – ex-officio, representing Donington-with-Boscobel PC

Marylyn Silver – ex-officio, representing Tong PC

1. Apologies received from Michael Ward, John Bulmer, David Hughes and Peter Woodman

2. Minutes of Meeting on 5^th March 2010 were approved.

3. Review Progress on the main projects:-

a) Village Entrance Scheme. Task Group: JB/HH/PW

PW had forwarded to SC the Hartwood report and quotation to deal with the dead trees at the Kingswood Rd/A41 junction. MP reported that Siobhan Reddy of Shropshire Council had informed him by email that SC would commission the work and pay for it. JB had said that he has suitable trees ready to plant there. ACTION: PW to send letter of thanks to SC for the prompt response.

HH reported that he and JB and Gerard Paris had planted many snowdrops and that he had many bags of them yet to plant. RS passed over the updated List of Volunteers as four of them offered particular help with planting for HH/JB to contact them. ACTION:HH

b) Civic Award Scheme for Schools. Task Group: PW/JB

Copies of the entries were tabled to give an idea of the response - which had not been as good as expected. However towhe committee felt that the full amount of prizes offered should still be awarded or it may jeopardise next year’s awards scheme.

c) Joint Local Parish Plan. Subcommittee led by PJ

PJ said he had not yet finalised the sub-committee makeup but expected that there would be about 5 members. RS said the Cllr Ron Kidson had offered to help in any way with the work. ACTION:PJ

PJ noted that the SC Core Strategy Report did not mention the need for car parking in Albrighton and this is a point for urgent attention. DB noted that it shows a need for 200 to 300 new houses. PL said that did it not include any mention of the motorways/main roads in the district. DB reported that he and Cllr Ron Kidson had prepared a report on behalf of Alb PC which had been sent to SC – PJ had a copy.

PJ felt that the Plan may take many months and up to a year to complete.

d) Other:-

i) 5 & 6 Cross Road

ACTION: MP to ask SC Highways to look at the broken footpath caused during construction of the new boundary wall to see if it is the responsibility of SC or the owners. (Post Mtg Note: The rubbish at No. 5 has been removed and the garden walls of Nos 5 & 6 have been fitted with iron railings which improve the appearance. The owners of both houses have now spread chippings over the front garden areas and the site is now looking better).

ii) The Old Smithy.

It was reported that children had been seen entering the site through the partly fallen down hoardings and this could be dangerous as the Smithy building appears to be partly collapsed and the rest could follow if disturbed. PW to write to David Thompson to ask him to make the site safe and repair the boundary fencing to seal off access, especially to children. ACTION: PW

e) Albrighton Station.

DB reported that Network Rail expected to spend £1M on improvements.

PL suggested that the ramp could be widened to considerably increase the car park area and RS explained that there were cheaper methods than concrete retaining walls to do this. A strengthened earthworks (steep slope) with a face of about 60⁰ or 70⁰ could be used which would have a vegetated face to blend in with the surroundings. This could be built along the edge of Station Rd or set back a little to allow a few small trees to be planted in front of the slope. This would entail removing the four large leylandi but DB said that the residents opposite would like these trees removed. PL had suggested the Society should pay for a survey and drawing to be made. RS offered that his company could make, at no cost to the Society, a simple survey to set the Google map to scale and could then produce a preliminary drawing which would be good enough to illustrate the proposal and for costing purposes. Should the scheme proceed then a full survey and drawings would of course be needed. ACTION: RS

f) Lack of Parking :Provision in Albrighton

PL had raised the lack of parking at the last LJC meeting. He had been asked to send a report with suggestions to SC to be discussed at the LJC Meeting on 19^th May. He tabled a draft report and sketches showing several possible areas near the centre of the village where new parking may be created. It was agreed that this was an issue which the Society would take up and members would contribute to PL’s report and PL would send the report on behalf of the Society.

g) SC Planning Dept Procedures (seen during SC’s dealing with The Hollies)

RS reminded all that it had been expected that the SC Head of Planning would have been at the last LJC meeting, as discussed at the last ADCS meeting. Cllr Ron Kidson was also keen to take up this matter and as he will be on holiday on the date of the May LJC meeting and as the car parking issue would take up some time at that May meeting it would be better for the matter to be dealt with at the following meeting on 12^th July.

ACTION: MP agreed to ask the Head of Planning and the Chairman of the Planning Committee (Bridgnorth) to be at the LJC meeting on 12^th July to answer concerns raised by ADCS and Alb Parish Councillors.

h) Insurance

RS said that ADCS still did not have any insurance cover but that PW was pursuing this. DB suggested contacting Zurich, NFU and Cornhill Insurance Companies. It was suggested that contact is made with neighbouring Civic Societies to see if they can suggest a company. ACTION:PW & PL

5. Any other business

a) John Hallet (Danesmoor, Cross Rd) had reported that the owner of the first house in Patshull Rd near Cross Rd had moved his fence towards the pond and appeared to have taken a large piece of council-owned land. ACTION: RS was asked to request that Mr Hallet write to Alb PC. Parish Clerk would take up the matter. ACTION: MW

b) RS asked all members to refer to the Volunteer List and contact the appropriate people – several have raised the matter and they are waiting to help with tasks. ACTION: ALL

Date of next meeting: Friday 7^th May at 2.00pm at PJ's House

(Following meeting to be on 1^st Friday in month ie Friday 4^th June 2010)