July 12th 2010 - meeting minutes

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

Photo by Peter Crowhurst

More discussion about the NLCA's future

By Lynne Arnold, NLCA Secretary

1. Introduction

Welcome to all, particularly new members. 27 attended. Apologies from Sara Bragg, Helen Cornish, Ian Davey, Mark Eriksson, and Glynis Simpson.

2. Minutes

Minutes of the last meeting were approved, with the following corrections:

• the spelling of Francis Clark-Lowes;
  
• the History Leaflet launch will be in the Hanover Room (not Road)];
• the garden party is being held by the Montpellier & Clifton Hill Association, not the Clifton, Montpellier and Powis Community Alliance.
  

3. Matter Arising

Caroline Lucas MP is not able to attend the September meeting due to votes in Parliament.

4. Environment

4.1 Rubbish is being left on the street in North Road near North Place, even though there is a communal bin opposite and bins available for the residents of 24 North Place. In addition, there have been a number of incidences of fly tipping and traders using communal bins, especially on Gloucester Road and Trafalgar Street. Peter Crowhurst to contact Gillian Marston at the Council regarding these issues, as they do monitor bins.

4.2 It was suggested that we should have an ‘NLCA Environment Officer’ to liaise with the Council on these issues. If you are interested, please contact Peter Crowhurst.

5. Planning

Responses to planning applications were circulated. Any questions should go to Barry Leigh or Sandy Crowhurst.

6. Licensing

6.1 The application for the Wetherspoon licence on North Street was approved. This again raises the issue of the non-responsiveness of the Council to residents' concerns, due to the difficulty of reporting antisocial behaviour.

6.2 The benefits that were supposed to come from the introduction of the 2003 Licensing Act have not shown themselves to be real in practice. In fact it could be argued that things are worse both in the North Laine and beyond.

6.3 There was a suggestion that we should contact other associations who are experiencing similar problems with the idea of coming together in a campaign regarding the Act. We should also investigate options for managing footfall, creating an e-petition on the Council site; or any other ideas. This will be discussed at future meetings.

7. Police Local Action Team priorities

(a) Antisocial behaviour: see above
(b) 20mph: Jointly the police and the Council have been focusing on the speed in the area during the last month.
(c) Cycles: there has been an increase in bicycle theft.

8. Future of the NLCA

General

8.1 There was a strong feeling that the North Laine IS a community, although the nature of it is harder to pin down, with residents varying from the long-term to the highly transient.

8.2 We need to emphasise that ‘the association is you’, that you are member simply by living here, and that ‘nobody cares more about your community than you’. We want to encourage involvement, perhaps through social or other events, changing times of events or meetings.

8.3 Many residents may not want to attend every meeting, but they want to know that the Association is there when they need it.

8.4 The NLCA has managed to achieve a lot - eg the history leaflet which is to be launched on Tuesday 20 July 2010.

Meetings

8.5 It was thought that the meetings are a bit dry and intimidating. It was agreed to trial having a tea break half way through, trying to restrict the business part of the meeting to half an hour, and to have a varied and interesting focus for the majority of the time.

8.6 It was also agreed to draft standing orders for the planning items so that that they can be addressed outside the meeting. Then only items that residents bring to the meeting or are considered controversial will be discussed.

Runner

8.7 This was felt an excellent voice for the community.

8.8 A number of offers were made to learn to produce the Runner, to support Jackie and ensure its sustainability.

Finance

8.9 It was suggested that we should ask residents whether they want to support the Association financially through donations.

9. Social events

The Theatre Group would be going to see ‘Steel Magnolias’ at the Little Theatre on 5 August. Contact Peter Crowhurst if interested.