January 14th 2008 - meeting minutes

Loaves and Fishes sculpture by John Skelton, Brighthelm Church and Community Centre

Trafalgar Street Post Office under threat of closure

Attendence

26 people attended.

Apologies

Sara Bragg, Susie Lloyd, Kevin Daly, Pete West

Minutes of last meeting

Agreed after amending two names: Mike Holland (not Goldstone) and Stella Mainstone (not Maidstone).

Matters arising

- Bev Ditch from B&H Trading Standards Office has agreed to be our guest speaker for the March meeting. ACTION: secretaries will contact her.

- Following NLCA's successful bid to the National Lottery Awards for All scheme and the commencement of our new website project, Jack Latimer of mybrightonandhove and Community Sites software gave us a fascinating presentation on how the new site will work and the possibilities it affords us. NLCA needs a core group of volunteers and a wider group of participants, for the website to run. To get involved contact Peter Crowhurst. Full training will be provided and Jack and Peter assured us (and showed) that helping with the website will not be time consuming or difficult. The new website will be launched in July.

Planning and environment

- Gabrielle Villermet and Barry Leigh talked us through the most recent planning applications.
- Roy Skam reported that, as NLCA representative, he was prevented from making representations at a licence hearing. Meeting resolved to write to the head of licensing at B&H Council to complain and to ask that they adhere to their policy of allowing community groups to make representations at licence hearings. ACTION: Secretaries and Chair.
- Roy also reported that the police proposal for a Cumulative Impact Zone (CIZ) for the centre of Brighton and Hove has now been redrawn, but still includes North Laine. If accepted the CIZ could make it much more difficult for new licences or extensions to be granted.
- Gabrielle reported that the Blue Plaque committee will probably place a plaque in Kensington Gardens to commemorate the site of Anita Roddick's first Body Shop. The British Boxers Association will also be erecting a marker, this one for the 19th century boxing champion Tom Sayer who lived in Orange Row.

Reports

- Runner: Ruth reported that the last Runner collection resulted in 50% of street reps not collecting their Runners. Following discussion it was decided that the next reminder would be sent electronically and be followed up with a prominent paper notice delivered to each rep. The next Runner collection date is Thursday 31st January after 5pm. ACTION: secretaries

- Traders: Sharon Thomas reported that the North Laine Traders Association are investigating the possibility of making the North Laine a business conservation area: this should help protect small businesses from being squeezed out by larger retailers and chains.

Social

- The Kingscliffe Society dinner takes place on Tuesday 12th February and costs £19. Contact Jackie Fuller if you would like to go.
- Theatre Group - next visit will be to see 'Barefoot in the Park' by Neil Simon.

Any other business

- B&H City Council are proposing a new model of governance, where the existing committee system would be replaced by a cabinet-style system. This will be discussed more fully at the February meeting and NLCA will make representations to the consultation process following this meeting.
- Upper Gardner Street Market: our councillors are pressing the Council to rectify the ludicrous situation re parking. They are also calling for more support for the traders and more planning for the future of the market.