NACRA

 

Newtown Area Community and Residents Association

Monthly Committee Meeting

Date: 16th March 2009

Venue: Strings

Time: 1900 hrs

Present: Janet Farrow (Chairman) PRESENT

Julie Greening (Sec) PRESENT

 Bill Ritter PRESENT

 Dave Witts PRESENT

 Jane Lucking (Treasurer) PRESENT

 Steve Tandy (Minuets Sec) PRESENT

 Angie Thompson PRESENT

 John Lucking PRESENT

 Julie Irwin (Publicity) APOLOGY

 TBCllr John McCloy PRESENT

 TTCllr Vernon Smith APOLOGY

 TTCllr Tina Brookes PRESENT

 TTCllr Andy Smith PRESENT   

 AGENDA

Minutes from January meeting.

Matters arising from minutes.

Resignation - Vice Chair.

Regeneration of Tewkesbury.

Community Centre funding.

Any Other Business.  

1 The chairman, Janet, asked if the minutes from the January meeting could be approved – committee approved the minutes.

2 Matters arising from minutes – it was discussed that the minutes could only be changed, after distribution, if the committee agreed the changes at the next meeting. It was also agreed that when the minutes secretary distributed the minutes to the committee and councillors that this should be in the form of PDF as the various forms of Word was causing problems with the different computer versions of MS Office. There were also two roads missed off the distribution list of information to the houses in Newtown from the last minutes. The list added Troughton Place and Walton Gardens and updated the quantity of houses needed for each road.

3 The committee had received the information that Michelle Harwood wanted to resign from the committee because of work commitments; Julie had thanked Michelle for her work on the committee during the difficult early days of setting up NACRA. Michelle had been working on a list of Street names in Newtown that required repair. This list was given to John McCloy for him to follow up with the TBC and County Highways dept. John will keep NACRA informed of any progress.

4 Regeneration of Tewkesbury was the next subject to be discussed. Julie Greening, Julie Irwin and Dave Witts had been to represent NACRA at the first meeting of 80 different groups from Tewkesbury to put together ideas to help regenerate Tewkesbury. The original idea had come from the Town Council and the thoughts from the first meeting were very positive. Some good work had already been started but not implemented. At the meeting the chairman of the committee gave a presentation followed by a presentation from the Gloucestershire Echo and then by a Cirencester group, who it was thought were further down the line than the Tewkesbury group. Everyone involved thought that all should work together. It needed ideas from the grassroots up and not from the top down. Some members of the committee and some councillors had also attended a meeting with the Tewkesbury School Council of 80 strong students. Some very good ideas are coming from the group, and it is hoped that a presentation is to be given to the NACRA committee in the near future. Tina stated that the children had even approached her days later with even more ideas which showed that they are taking it very seriously. Because the ideas are community based, grants can be awarded. There has been a good response from TBC Exec Committee with the thoughts that the TBC and TTC working together with a common aim.

5 The subject of a future Community Centre. Tina had approached the school about possible land for a centre. No land could be seen as a possible site and concerns were highlighted about access to land around the school. Another possible site was around Alderman Knight School – Tina will follow this site up. While at the school it was apparent that the headmaster John Riley was having a difficult day with the students as the senior management at the school were trying to invoke stricter discipline across the board with uniforms, iPods, telephones etc. Dave Witts proposed that NACRA send a letter of support to John Riley, this was seconded by Andy Smith. The subject of the Boys Brigade building was then talked about. John McCloy said that in the deeds of the building was the fact that the building should be used for the local community as well as the BB although run by the BB. Dave Witts proposed that we help the BB with community based ideas in the future and that a letter to be sent to the BB stating this. It was seconded by Jane Lucking. It was thought that the BB HQ would be a possible solution to the Community Centre for the future.

 Any other business – Janet said that someone had approached her to be the co-ordinator of the flower beds in front of Knights Way but was concerned about what to do and if helpers would still help. Janet would get John McCloy to talk to the person. Janet asked if Vernon (who was not at the meeting) had done anything about the 10 trees offered. Dave was to see Vernon about the subject.

Andy Smith had been to a meeting about the parking problem around Green Lane with 6th formers parking there during the day. Work is ongoing. He then mentioned the road surface of Pyke Road which was in need of resurface. This is planned for years 09/10.

John McCloy had spoken to PC Phil Groome about weekend patrols to the playground in Walton Cardiff Lane as groups of youths are congregating there and causing a problem with several incidents of damage recently.  

Tina then showed the committee plans for the regeneration of the playing field. She stated that TBC had £1.3M to spend and applied for £70K to update the playfield. There were areas for younger children and an area for teenagers. There was a sign to be erected the next day stating that the field should only be used by 12 years old and younger. This would allow the police to move groups of older youths on if causing a problem. The Healthy Town project could also be used for funding.  

Peter Aldridge arrived late and asked if he could join the committee – committee agreed.  

Dave Witts then asked John McCloy about the idea that Vernon Smith had come up with about gabions to help solve the flooding problems around Tewkesbury. John was asked to approach the Environment Agency about forwarding this idea to Halcro/Environmental Agency. A general talk about various drainage around Newtown ended the evening.

 Next NACRA meeting Monday April 20th at Strings 7.00pm  

Steve Tandy gave his apologies that he would not be able to attend.