Minutes Sept 08
Minutes of Meeting - 25th Sept 2008
BRIDGNORTH LOW TOWN ACTION GROUP
Meeting Room, Community Hall, Severn Street, Bridgnorth
Thursday 25th September 2008 - 7.30pm Minutes of Meeting
In Attendance:
E. Marshall Chairman/Treasurer
C. Jephcott
C. Lee
R. Hulse
H. Pugh
M. Grocock (Secretary)
Apologies:
1. The Chairman opened the meeting by welcoming everybody.
2. Apologies for absence are as listed above.
3. Matters Arising
New Shropshire Council - Proposed Electoral boundaries. Letter sent to The Boundary Committee for England, and an acknowledgement received.
Well Meadow Fishing. We have sent a letter to the Town Council about our proposal to collect fishing fees, and an acknowledgement received stating that our proposal will be put forward at the appropriate time. In the meantime Town Council minutes state that a person has been appointed to collect fishing fees on a self-employed basis, presumably for the current year.
Our web site. It is now up and running, and the minutes of our last meeting are online.
Sale Price of the Stourbridge Road College Site. The sale proceeds, net of the direct costs of disposal, was £4,935.000. This money went to SCAT (Shropshire College of Arts & Technology) based in Shrewsbury. Persimmon, the developers who bought the site, are doing nothing with it at the moment because of the financial situation and as a result it is becoming a wild life haven.
Mobile Speed Warning Sign on Hospital Street. County Council have been contacted. Councillor Chris Lea will follow this up with the County Council.
4. Project Funding
We have submitted an application to the Bridgnorth & Morfe Local Joint Committee, for the sum of £650 to purchase a laptop computer and software. The laptop computer would be used for administration, for archiving documents and photographs, and for preparing and making presentations. The meeting approved and endorsed our decision to apply for this grant.
5. Treasurers Report
The balance stands at £1002.00, with one bill of £16 for room hire to be paid.
6. Bridgnorth & Morfe Local Joint Committee
The second meeting of this newly established group was held at Alveley on 16th September, 2008. Two members at our meeting had attended the Alveley meeting, and a third member had been extensively briefed by someone else who had been at the Alveley meeting.
The consensus was that this meeting had been a complete shambles. Two different start times had been published, documents were stated to be inadequate (none offered or made available to the public), and no detailed discussion of any grant applications. The voting Councillors agreed to defer consideration of grant applications to the next meeting, scheduled for mid-January, 2009.
It was agreed that Bridgnorth Low Town Action Group should write a letter to Carolyn Downs, Chief Executive of Shropshire County Council, expressing our concerns about the operation of the Bridgnorth & Morfe Local Joint Committee.
A further point to note is that the time and date of the meeting clashed with a meeting of Bridgnorth Town Council. Of the 17 parishes represented on the local Joint Committee, the registered voters in Bridgnorth account for 56% of the total registered voters for all the parishes, and on the same basis it could be said that £39,210 out of the total available of £70,000 for grants should be allocated within the town. Note that the reference to grants should be a guide only, as in practice the Committee could allocated them anywhere, and some Bridgnorth based grant applications would appear to cover both Bridgnorth and the surrounding parishes. Shropshire County Council did not deem it necessary to change the date of the September meeting, and it remains to be seen if they will change the proposed date for the March meeting, which will also clash with a Bridgnorth Town Council Meeting.
There were two guest speakers at the Alveley meeting.
a) One was a representative from the Shrewsbury & Telford Hospital Trust, talking about their application for Foundation status, and that this required a minimum membership of 5,000. Membership is free. Membership is low in theBridgnorth area, but this is probably because people in this area, both historically and currently, use hospitals in Wolverhampton, Kidderminster and elsewhere. If using public transport, it is still easier to visit hospitals in Wolverhampton than to visit the Telford or Shrewsbury hospitals.
b) The other speaker talked about drugs and alcohol. An interesting item was the mention of CADDIE - up-to-date information about crime and disorder in your area, which is readily available online. Type in 'Shropshire CADDIE'.
7. Sub-Group Reports.
a) Environment
The Riverside Enhancement Group, chaired by Dr. C. Jephcott, has arranged with Mr. B. Bennett, Shropshire County Council, to look at the trees on the west side of the river. It is understood that The Civic Society would like to remove all the trees and replant with a smaller species of tree.The Environment Agency has supplied the Group with a hundred page document on controlling Japanese Knot Weed.
£30,000.00 has been spent on improving the path along the west bank of the river in the environs of the Town; below here the path is blocked.
A further grant of about £50,000.00 is likely to be allocated by the District Council for: Vegetation - managed by a long term plan, improvement of Signage along the banks of the river and the Foundry Park entrance.
b) Recreation.
Fishermen fishing from the path at the bottom end of the Bylet channel are cutting stands of corlene from the safety line attached to the life buoy at the rear of Pale Meadow to secure fishing rods to the railings.
c) Transportation.
The red signs about parking in Sabrina Road have been wrongly placed. The Surveyers' Office in Stourbridge Road will be contacted..
8. General Discussion.
West Mercia Police.
A small task force from Hindlip Hall recently carried out a mobile number plate check part on the Kidderminster Road. Children recently vandalised the uprights at the entrance to the Low Town Community Hall; the Police have been informed.
Bridgnorth Boys Club building.
This building is on the riverside, off Doctors Lane. We have been informed that the trustees are looking at various ways of using the building, or perhaps selling it.
The next meeting - 7.30 pm, Thursday 4th December 2008, at the Community Hall Low Town.