Albrighton & District Civic Society

Minutes of the Committee Meeting of the
Albrighton & District Civic Society
held at 31/32 High St, Albrighton,
on Monday 8th February 2016 at 2pm

Present :       
Peter Woodman - Chairman
Rod Smith – Secretary
Mike Pitchford - Treasurer
John Bulmer
Bob Hickson
Ron Kidson  
David Thomas (ex-officio representing Boningale PC)

1. Apologies received from David Beechey and Peter Leigh. Michael Ward (ex-officio representing Albrighton PC) did not attend. Our visitor Peter Isles was on holiday

2. Minutes of Meeting of 4th January 2016 were approved.

3. Treasurer’s Report.– MP reported that the AAHF had been wound up and their funds had been donated to the Historical Society (£400.00) and the Civic Society (£421.15). The bank balance stood at £2,580.35 but some of this is ring fenced for the Village Entrance Scheme.

4. To consider progress in regard to following main issues

a) Entrances Scheme. JB reported that he and volunteers had cleared the weeds etc at Kingswood Rd/A41 entrance

b) Eyesores. BH reported that:- the owner/tenant? of the empty shop in Station Rd had finally agreed to paint the facia board at the rear. BH reported that Mr Jasper said that a bakery is to open there soon.
Albrighton Garage – the promised painting had not yet started.
RK reported that the footpath is again flooding outside the Kids Clothes shop (ex PC office) on the High St – this had been a past problem which he understood that Alb PC had resolved but it is now recurring. BH would speak to Michael Ward to see what was known of the matter and if the Society could support any action by the PC.

c) Library. PW reported that work is underway for Alb PC to move into the building.
BH noted that the steel post and timber rail fence between the library forecourt and the lane leading to the rear of the hairdresser’s shop badly needed painting and asked if this could be done by SC as part of their refurbishment works. ACTION: BH to speak to Michael Ward

d) Future of the Swimming Pool.
RS reported that at the last meeting of the Pool Group on 1st December 2015 no date for a next meeting was fixed.
RS suggested that the committee should decide if the Society had an interest in the matter and to decide how best to continue. The committee decided that the Society did have an interest and would support measures to keep the pool operating. PW reported that he was part of a group of Albrighton parish councillors dealing with the matter and it was agreed that ACTION: PW would be the Society’s liaison with the Pool Group and would keep the Society updated and involved.

e) Station Pedestrian Ramp. RS, Secretary Ramp Team, reported that SC’s public consultation ended on 12th January. A meeting of the Ramp Team with SC highway officers and their consulting engineer, Mouchel, and Cllr Malcolm Pate was to be held on 9th February to review the consultation results and how to move forward.
The proposed footpath scheme received about 90% approval with about 10% against.
RS reported that he had asked for NR’s drawings and received a copy of NR’s Form 006 which showed their proposal for clearances and is used for liaison between Network Rail and a highway authority. This document also noted that NR will keep the original “listed” cast iron parapet beams at the platform outer edges – these are a prominent feature seen when approaching the bridge.
A discussion concerning the long yellow lines on Stn Rd between Shaw Lane and the first driveway of No.56 Stn Rd resulted in the conclusion that the lines were useful on Stn Rd near the corner with Shaw Lane but that the excess length beyond that meant that parents parking to take children to school were forced to park elsewhere. RS reported that he had received a phone call from a resident of Woodland Close complaining that cars were parking across drives and causing problems. MP reported that a telephone company van is very often parked adjacent to a communications box which they regularly work on and this short approx 5m length (between the 1st and 2nd driveway of No. 56 Stn Rd) should remain to help enable the phone company put its van there – this is the last length of yellow line towards the village (~5m). [MP lives at No. 56]
It was decided that the Civic Society’s members on the Ramp Team would contact Alb PC colleagues and SC officers concerning the matter and to see if the excess length could be removed at the same time as yellow lines are installed from Shaw Lane towards the rail bridge (road lines need a legal traffic order to lay/remove and it would be convenient to include this at the same time) – this would be raised with Alb PC Chairman at the meeting on 9th February.

5. Matters Arising.
a) Shaw Lane Development . As we still have no response from Richard Fortune to our request that he come to meet us then - ACTION: PW to write to Ian Kilby, Head of Planning, to invite him to one of our next committee meetings

b) Recruiting Stall. Agreed to set up at 9am for 10am start on Saturday 5th March – subject to weather.            All – please bring the various items as before.
BH not available, so BH to pass the promotional folders and banners to RS.

6. AOB
a) RK had attended a meeting in Shifnal on behalf of the Society,. He noted that Shifnal had created a very active organisation to promote and encourage the future of Shifnal. Shifnal Forward is a partnership between Shropshire Council, Shifnal Town Council, Businesses, Shifnal Civic Society and the wider community and wondered if Albrighton would benefit from a similar wide collaboration to move Albrighton forward. DT thought Albrighton was dying and shops closing and needed some action. It was noted that SF had already successfully negotiated with the train operator to start the key commuter through train from Shrewsbury to Birmingham a few minutes earlier from so that it could now stop at Shifnal.
Some thought that Albrighton lost out with SC, as we are called a “village” and it may be better to be called a “market town”.
This whole topic would be discussed at the next meeting.

b) ACTION: PW to ask the Commander of RAF Cosford to be one of our speakers at the Public Meeting & AGM in October.

c) DT suggested that we needed a leaflet as well as the Folder – it could be based on the information in our Promotional Folder. He suggested that we should pay a professional to prepare it – he kindly offered to ask a possible candidate to talk to us.

Next  meeting: 2p.m. Monday 7th March at 31/32 High St. (Peter Woodman’s house).

Following Meeting will be at 2pm on Monday 4th April 2016.
(Committee Meetings are held on the first Monday each month)

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY: -
All future AGMs are on the second Monday of October

Public Meeting & AGM is at 7.00pm on Monday 10th October 2016