Minutes of the Committee Meeting of the
Albrighton & District
Civic Society
held
at APC Office, 82B High St, Albrighton,
on
Monday 4th February 2013 at 2pm
Present
:
Peter Woodman - Chairman
Rod Smith – Secretary.
David Hughes – Treasurer
Sarah Baker
John Bulmer
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 (part of meeting)
1.
Apologies received from Alan Wilmot
2.
Minutes of Meeting of 7th January 2013 were approved subject to any final comments regarding the notes
on the discussion with Steve Brown and Cllr Malcolm Pate being sent
to the Secretary by 8 February.
3.Main
Issues
a) Station
Heritage Centre.
Marked
up list of potential funders received form Fiona Fortune.
A
meeting of SCTG to be 10.30 hrs Monday 11th February at 31/32 High St.
ACTION: PW to contact
SITA who run Bilbrook waste site for funds
RS
asked if Alb PC had seen the details of the work to be carried out at the
Station refurbishment by NR so that we locals could be confident that the
result would be what was wanted and that the listed footbridge was properly
refitted with its missing GW logos and date signs. DB said that the council
had not asked NR for any information.
ACTION:
PW to write to our contacts in NR to ask them to come to speak to committee members
with such details.
[Post Meeting Note. The Society
will hold a public meeting to focus on the Station refurbishment work and
NR will make a presentation. It will start with Ernie Howells’s brief presentation
of the history of the line/station. The Society will briefly explain the
project to rescue the Station Building and ask for signed pledges of money.
Meeting
7pm to 9pm, Monday 8th April at Red House – please all try to attend]
b) Villages
Entrance Scheme.
JB
waiting for dry weather to weed spray Kingswood Rd/A41
c) Planters.
RS suggested that it would be useful
to visit the locations with Cllr McLachlan in order to get formal approval
of the Parish Council for the locations as she had raised concerns at the
recent presentation to Albrighton PC. The Society’s insurance would not
cover any incidents/accidents with the planters and they would be owned
by the Parish Council. MP read out the email of approval from Alice Dilly (SC Principle Traffic Engineer),
based on photographs provided to her, for the four proposed locations and
MW, on behalf of Albrighton PC, confirmed that as Alice Dilly had approved
the locations then Albrighton PC were satisfied with the locations.
It was decided that one of the four
locations, between Lloyds Bank and Rumbles Chip Shop, would not be used
as bollards in this area are often hit by cars and there is the risk that
chip shop waste may be put in the planter.
ACTION:
DH will now transfer £1100 to Alb PC and MW confirmed that he will then place the order for the 3 planters. MP said that they could be delivered to his house (The Little House, Station
Road, Albrighton WV7 3DL) from where they will be moved to their locations.
SB suggested
that they should be bolted down as those at Shifnal had been stolen and
she would ask her partner if he could carry out that work (he had bolted down the second set at Shifnal). RS suggested that the supplier
be asked to provide suitable fixing holes in the planters but it was felt
that the drainage holes would be satisfactory for this.
ACTION:
RS to write to Chris Edwards to ask him to allocate a SC person with traffic expertise to meet with us to discuss our proposal for an “overall planned approach” for
traffic management.
We are still waiting for Alice Dilly
to come to speak to us about her proposed Bowling Green Lane repair work. ACTION: RS to send another request to Alice Dilly for her to meet us to view BGL.
4.
Matters arising
a) School Award Scheme
PW had met the new head of St Mary’s
and she had agreed to participate.
b) Village Green Roads
DB stated that Paul Joseland had
found, in the County Archives, documents stating that Alb PC owns the roads.
DB has written to the Association of Councils legal department to ask for
their views.
c) Flower Show
RS said that Sue Pate had asked
if the Society could run the annual competition for the Bulmer Cup. It was
decided that the Society has already more than enough commitments, however
JB kindly offered to act as a judge and presenter of the Cup if he was available
at the time. ACTION: RS to write to Sue Pate
d) Public WC in Crown Car
Park
At the last AGM there was overwhelming
support by more than 150 members that a WC facility was retained especially
as there is to be a signage scheme to encourage more visitors/tourists
into the village – hence the Society had an interest in this issue. MW
advised
that he and Cllr Nelson are handling matters on behalf of Albrighton
PC. MW advised that SC own the building and that the automatic toilet
is owned
by Healthmatic company who tell Alb PC that to continue with it will
cost approx £9000 per annum. Alb PC had told Healthmatic that this is
too much
and asked that they come back in January with new proposals. At the Alb
PC meeting Cllr Nelson said that Healthmatic had told them that if they
are asked to remove their equipment that a payment of many thousands
of pounds would need to be paid by Alb PC. Several members asked if such
a
penalty was shown in the current contract with SC but MW said Alb PC
had not seen this contract. PW suggested that as a starting point Alb PC should ask for a copy of the contract between SC and
Healthmatic.
ACTION:
MW agreed to ask SC for a copy. PW offered to provide, without any cost to Alb PC, legal advice on the contract
to try to assist Alb PC to deal with the matter
e) McKeand Smith Planning
Application
RS tabled the drawings and the Application
to turn the offices and barns into 8 dwellings and to add an extension
to the weighbridge (at the junction of the track, leading to McK & Smith, and Shaw Lane) to make a small house. The proposal was felt to be a good
thing and should be supported in principle. However to assist the development
of the proposal to have parking on the land to the south of the Station
approach ramp or on the white land to the south of the track or to have a land swap of these two land areas then a right of way for pedestrians
and vehicles across McK & Smith’s track should be made a condition of granting of approval. ACTION: PW to send a letter to SC Planners
f) Fayre.
MP said a letter had been sent to
organisations saying the Fayre committee had resigned and that there would
be no Fayre this year. ACTION: SB would contact Sam Horrobin and Sandra Kirkland to offer the Society’s help and
would contact other organisations to see if they will help and to see if
a new Fayre committee could be formed. SB would be the Society’s representative
on any such committee
a) RS will send an article for the
Parish Magazine and will feature the Planters and a tear-off slip asking
for volunteers for Society work
Next
meeting: 2 p.m. Monday 4th March 2013
Following Meeting will be at 2pm on Monday 8th April 2013
All Committee Meetings, unless otherwise
noted, are on the first Monday of each month at
Alb PC Offices, 82B High Street,
Albrighton WV7 3JA (T: 375455).
(All future AGMs are on the second
Monday of October
– NOTE FOR YOUR DIARY: next AGM
is at 7.30pm on 14th October 2013)