March 8th 2010 - meeting minutes

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

Photo by Peter Crowhurst

Changes to NLCA constitution

By Lynne Arnold, NLCA joint Secretary

Welcome to all, particularly new members.  19 people attended.

Apologies were received from Louis Blanche, Francis Clark-Lowes and Anne Johnson.

Minutes of the last meeting

The minutes of the last meeting were approved, with an amendment to the wording of the Local Action Team priorities.

Environment

Licensing

10 Kensington Gardens: an objection was sent to support Upper Gardner Street residents.  There will be a hearing.

Music Library: the last hearing rejected the proposal for 1am closing and agreed to midnight.  An application has now been made for a 12.30am closing time.

The meeting agreed to leave any comment on these to residents.  If any resident wants support they can contact the NLCA Licensing Coordinator.

Barfly club: are applying for a 24 hour licence.  It was agreed that a general letter of objection will be sent, requesting as many conditions as possible.

Sandy Crowhurst attended the licensing strategy meeting, where it was reported that it was not considered appropriate to include in licensing law the need to take health factors into account, including stress due to antisocial behaviour. Also, from 6 April 2010 it becomes illegal to offer irresponsible deals or to use dentist chairs to administer alcohol.

Planning

It was agreed to make no comment on applications for 83 Gloucester Road and 10 Sydney Street.

22 Upper Gardner Street replacement windows: it was agreed to write requesting that the design of these windows meet the conservation officer’s recommended design for North Laine.

36 Gloucester Road (Seasons Café): the application is to extend the closing time to 10pm. The meeting agreed that we would write to object on the basis of noise and the change of character of the area.

95 Trafalgar Street: the appeal against enforcement has been dismissed as there is still a potential application for a redesigned front window.

Local Action Team priorities

1.   This will not be an easy priority to meet as police resourcing is very limited. Currently, policing is on a response-only basis from midnight to 3am.  PCSOs are not scheduled to work after midnight.  

In response to a resident’s complaint about increased antisocial behaviour in Brighthelm Gardens, John Sharman agreed to liaise with Brighthelm.  

It was agreed that Peter Crowhurst should write to the police requesting that there be some police presence in the North Laine area on one-in-three nights, between midnight and 3am.

2.   It is not clear at the moment which streets have 20mph speed limits and which do not.  It was agreed that we should contact Jenny Rowlands from the Council requesting information.  

Sussex Police’s traffic department is going to look at the traffic flow in the Trafalgar Street, Gloucester Road and Sydney Street areas.

Problems are still being caused by Dominos drivers parking on Trafalgar Street.

3.   The situation regarding cycles is improving.

Future of NLCA

The NLCA will have to cease to function if we cannot find a chair and secretary at the next AGM.  However, the officers recently met and would like to propose some potential changes to the constitution and roles of officers:

• Create the role of a vice-chair, which it is envisaged would be held by either the immediate past chair or a prospective chair.  It would mean that the role of chair could be shared and knowledge transferred.
• Delete “an officer shall not be eligible for any office within 12 months” from the constitution, to enable the immediate past chair to take this post.
• Amend the Association’s objects so as to include Windsor Street and Jew Street in the Association’s area.
• Limit the role of secretary to dealing with minutes only, acknowledging that most correspondence is now done by relevant officers.  Also make changes so that minutes can be distributed via email, and Runner notices by email, text and phone.  This should make this role more attractive to new people.

The web group members will be responsible for uploading approved minutes.

Reports

Runner

Jackie Fuller feels unable to continue doing both the editor and default acting advertising coordinator roles.  If someone does not come forward soon, she feels that the Runner is unlikely to continue past the summer.  As explained in previous minutes, the advertising role could be shared between people, but does require some flexibility and availability during office hours.  

Anyone interested in helping should contact Jackie.

Brighton Society

No report.

Police

Please notify the police if you notice anything regarding possible squats.

Traders

The traders’ AGM will be held on 22 March from 6.15pm in the Studio bar at Komedia.  The speaker will be the Chief Executive of the Council.

Website group

An event is being planned for the summer to commemorate the website’s second year.

Social events

Theatre group

The theatre group is going to see 'In Flame' by Charlotte James, on 15 April. Contact Peter Crowhurst if you are interested in coming along.

Any other business

The Council is canvassing residents in Kensington Place regarding a proposal to hire professional graffiti artists to paint the back walls along Trafalgar Lane.

Maureen Brand was thanked for her contributions to NLCA and wished the very best for the future.