Albrighton Civic Society

Minutes of the Committee Meeting of the

Albrighton & District Civic Society

held at APC Office, 82B High St, Albrighton,

on Monday 3^rd October 2011 at 2pm

Present :

Peter Woodman - Chairman

Rod Smith – Secretary

David Hughes - Treasurer

Ron Kidson

Peter Leigh

Mike Pitchford

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

David Murray – ex-officio, representing Tong PC

Michael Ward – ex-officio, representing Albrighton PC

1. Apologies received from John Bulmer and Hugh Hughes

2. Minutes of Meeting of 5^th September 2011 were approved

3. Presentation on Local Listing by Matthew Knight, SC Conservation Officer. He provided a set of notes of the presentation.

Local Listing has the same criteria as the usual listing procedures by English Heritage. “Local Listing is a means for the local community and Local Authority to jointly decide what it is in their area .....should be recognised as a “local heritage asset”. This fact is noted should any planning application be made which relates to the locally listed building. Local Listing may be carried out by the Society and a request made to SC to register it as such in SC’s records. Mr Knight hoped that the system of Local Listing would be established by SC by mid 2012. In any case the Society could now draw up a provisional list and it was felt that this should be done in conjunction with the Historical Society.

4. Discussion with Steve Brown SC Service Manager, Environmental Maintenance to follow up the meeting held with SB and Chris Edwards in May 2011. See marked up Notes from Previous May Meeting. Following the discussion PL took Steve Brown to view some areas needing attention.

5. Main Current Issues

a. Entrance Scheme

£150 grant has been received from Donington – with-Boscobel PC. The Chairman asked DB to convey the grateful thanks of the Committee and the Society at their next PC meeting.

ACTION: PW to meet with David Thomas, Chairman of Boningale PC.

b. Hanging Baskets and Planting Pods Scheme.

The Society will arrange a competition in conjunction with the Flower Show next year.

c. Albrighton Station

PW said that we were fortunate to have had the assistance of John Reeves, a Society member and local architect. His firm has produced drawings for use in our bid to the HLF.

The meeting which was arranged at the station on 26 September with invited guests from the Arts & Crafts community, Officers from the Historical Society and local art teachers was attended by approximately 30 people, 26 of whom signed a Statement in support of the Project.

d. Civic Society School Awards

PW said that he had now received agreement from all 4 schools saying that they will participate in this year’s Scheme.

6. Public Meeting and AGM Monday, 24 October 2011.

Planned speakers are:

STATION:

John Reeves – Architect

Speaker from the Arts/Crafts Group

Speaker from the Historical Society (PL?)

SC Matters:

Matthew Knight – Conservation Officer

Chris Edwards, SC Area Director South – all SC matters

Steve Brown said that he could deal with street scene matters – but we do not want to have these on the agenda as we have spoken about eyesores at the previous two AGMs.

ACTION: PW to again press Chris Edwards to come to deal with Planning and general SC issues. DB said that Jake Berriman is coming to speak at the Alb PC meeting on 6^th October and MP will go along to represent ADCS and to assess if Mr Berriman may be a possible speaker at the AGM in case we cannot get Mr Edwards to speak

AGM arrangements and ACTIONS:-

MP confirmed that Chris Pitchford and friends would organise a raffle as last year and the Chairman thanked Mike & Chris for this.

RS will meet Mandy to check out the new projector equipment and will provide a laptop for any presentations.

DH will make a Treasurer’s Report including membership numbers. DH will ask Gerard Paris if he will kindly audit the accounts.

PW will ask if we can borrow the School Awards entries which we put on the walls (and borrow the Crawford Cup to display at the AGM?)

RS will put photos of the awards ceremony on a PP presentation for use in the Chairman’s Report

It was agreed to make John Reeves an Honorary Life Member in recognition of his service to the Society for work on the Station Project – to be awarded immediately after his presentation at the AGM. ACTION:RS to prepare the Certificate

RS will draw up an agenda for the AGM and circulate for comment/development. This will also show suggested committee member’s names and tasks – please advise RS asap if these need to be changed.

7. AOB

MP’s view was that the Life Membership category was not helpful and at too low a price at £10. Some suggested that we scrap the category. RS referred to the Constitution which establishes the category and said that to scrap it we would need to amend the Constitution or we could just increase the price which does not need a change to the Constitution. It was agreed that we would not scrap it nor change the price but that we would not advertise or promote the category.

Next meeting: 2 p.m. Monday 7^th November 2011

Following Meeting will be at 2pm on Monday 5^th December 2011.

All Committee Meetings, unless otherwise noted, are at Alb PC Offices, 82B High Street, Albrighton WV7 3JA (T: 375455)