June 10th 2009, 7.00 pm committee meeting

Notes of Committee Meeting
June 10th 2009, 7.00 pm at The Vale Community Centre, 17a Hadlow Close

Present: Committee: Grant Scott (Chairman), Alan Cooke (Secretary), Nick Wood (Centre Manager), Keith Drysdale, Bill Duff, Irene Fender; Others: Sue Hes (TDC - Trust for Developing Communities), Joyce Ross (resident)

1. Apologies: Sarah Johnson, Carol Byard
2. Minutes of meeting April 8th 2009. These were agreed unanimously.
3. Matters Arising. None.
4. Updates:
a) Gardening group –Trees
Bill and Joyce were unhappy with the way the garden adjoining 2-12 Queensway had been treated – forsythia had been cut to almost ground level, a rosemary had been removed, and a compost bin had been put close to the storeroom, allowing access to the roof. For the gardening team, Grant said that the bin had now been relocated to the centre of the estate, and that they would seek to place suitable plants in the barren areas. Irene suggested that the bin be lined with cardboard, painted green, and possibly padlocked.
Grant would follow up offers of free trees for the estate – possibly to replace the failed apricot tree, for the mosaic at the top of Queensway, and for the newly barren area adjacent to 101 Queensway. The area behind 65-99 Queensway had now been reseeded and was growing well.
b) Estate Development Budget Awards
Grants are to be given to improve lighting at four points on the estate, to replace a bench at the corner of Craven Road and Queensway, and to convert the ‘bin’ area by the side of the Community Centre into a fenced-in ‘safe’ area, with decorative slabs and planters. It was suggested that a rubberised surface would be more useful than decorative slabs. Alan is to write to Trevor asking how to proceed with the bin area improvements.
Alan will also seek from Housing a definitive map of land ownership in Parham Close; and reply to Gordon Stanford re the failed application for a ramp at Tilgate Place.
c) Big Tidy Up July 18th - Woodlands
A team is preparing for this event for 10 am to 2 pm on Saturday July 18th. Paul Gorringe (Park Ranger) is to ensure that insurance and health and safety items are covered. Sue Leggett is trying to involve CityClean. Councillors and PCSOs will be helping, and the youth workers are being approached. Next meeting of organising group June 30th at 3 pm.
Paul is also leading the team to improve the woodlands, and will be contacting the Payback team to help reconstruct Jacob’s Ladder.
d) Highways – Car Parking
Cllr Mitchell had raised our concerns with the Highways department, and various options are being examined. Extra paving may be placed next to the communal bins.
The whole area is now being studied as a potential car parking control area. An initial meeting is being arranged to meet the project manager on July 8th for reporting back to the Association later that day. There has been no progress as yet on adding an extra car parking space for the Centre in Hadlow Close.
e) General Repairs
Bill is in touch with the Council regarding rampant woodworm in the joists of a newly re-roofed block. More generally, it is suggested that residents should make complaints via the Home Office website www.fixmystreet.com, and advise of results.
Sue has been in touch with SameSky concerning the repair of the various mosaics. Alan will try and fix up a meeting with Bec Britain. Grants may be available from the Hedgecock Foundation.
f) The Vale Community Centre
Sue Hes will follow up correspondence from Varndean about the possibility of a new computer basics group. The youth drop-in on Fridays is expected to cease soon. Alan to ask Les Barnes what news there is of cleaners taking over part of the Little Shed.
Sue suggested that business cards are drawn up with details of CVCA on one side and The Vale Community Centre on the other. Alan would draw up a first draft.
g) Playgrounds – Playbus
There was no government money available this year to re-develop the small playground at the rear of Parham Place, but Cllr Mitchell will try to keep us on the list if further funds are made available. We could also examine the concept of a ‘natural’ play area in the woodlands, as at Peacehaven.
Sue had failed to get the Council playbus to visit the estate for yet another year – Cllr Turton is to follow up.
5. Correspondence
a) QPCV Forum minutes May 20th. CVCA could bid for part of the £3,500 grant from the Scarman Trust to QPCV for ‘community health projects’ – some had already been allocated to an arts group for sessions at the VCC. ((Amendment: The £3500 referred to under 5a, is held by QPCV Community Forum, (it is administered by Scarman but comes from the Primary Care Trust) The next meeting of the QPCV Community Forum is Wednesday July 15th and a proposal could be presented to the meeting or at the following one in September.))
A Health Bus would soon be visiting Craven Vale regularly. Mark Burgess has been appointed as a full-time Active for Life worker covering Queens Park, Craven Vale and the Bristol Estate.
b) Sarah Johnson is asking for people to accompany her on Estate inspections. Alan and Keith will meet at 143 Queensway on June 25th (2pm); and Nick will join Sarah at 152 Craven Road at 2pm on July 2nd.
6. Finance
The audited accounts had now been received from the Resource Centre with no changes from the draft accounts passed at the AGM: Grant signed the audited accounts.
A grant of £300 had been received from St George’s Church in Kemp Town to pay for materials to reconstruct Jacob’s Ladder.
Because of an overspend on the payback gardening project earlier in the year (due to the excessive expense of skip hire), the CVCA accounts were now very low, although the VCC account for the Centre was extremely healthy. It was agreed that the VCC make a grant of £1,000 to the CVCA account, predominantly to work with SameSky on the mosaic project.
7. Any Other Business
Sue Hes announced that she had been successful in applying for a new post in Peacehaven, and would regretfully be leaving at the end of July. On behalf of the Committee and all the residents, Alan and Grant thanked Sue for all the excellent work she has put in over the past three years – she will be a very hard act to follow!
8. Dates of Next Meetings
a) General Meeting, 7 pm July 8th (no set agenda)
b) Committee Meeting, 7 pm September 9th

The meeting closed at 9:15 pm.