Minutes of the meeting on 13 April 2015

Minutes of Meeting held on Monday 13 April 2015 at 8pm
at the Clarion Collection Hotel, Holywell Hill.

1. Present: Avril Allen, Catherine Barron, Bernadette Blade, Cllr. Alun Davies, Charles Davies, Catherine Hieatt, Cathy Jones, Angela King, Roger Morton, Mary Plackett, Eric Thurston, Cllr. Chris White

2. Apologies for absence: Anthony Hyde, Linda Mathewman, Pam Johnson

3. Minutes of previous meeting: The minutes of the meeting held on Monday 2nd February 2015 had been circulated by email and a copy was made available at this meeting.

4. Matters arising: None

5. Vacancy for Secretary: Cathy Jones volunteered to take on the role of Secretary. Her offer was unanimously accepted.

6. Finances: Anthony confirmed (by email) that we still had £314.22 in the bank. The signing arrangements for the bank account had now been amended.

7. Neighbourhood Watch:

Catherine Hieatt (Neighbourhood Watch Coordinator for St Peter’s Ward) addressed the meeting by invitation. She explained how Neighbourhood Watch is organised in St Albans and recommended that members of SAPHRA should sign up for the OWL (On-line Watch Liaison) scheme. She distributed OWL sign-up forms and a number of those present signed up to the scheme.

8. City Neighbourhoods Committee:

  • Angela King attended the meeting on 12th March 2015 on behalf of SAPHRA.
  • The subjects discussed were Clarence Park Recreational Ground, Police Liaison, Christmas lights, ‘Maintenance and renewals’ budget allocations to wards, Finance Report, Children’s play areas and St Albans carnival
  • Detailed minutes of City Neighbourhoods Committee meetings are available on the St Albans District Council website.  

9. Our local environment:

  • Lorry ban / speed restriction / pinch-point in Sopwell Lane. Cllr. Chris White is working on options for a pinch-point in Sopwell Lane. Replacing any parking spaces lost to the pinch-point will be a key requirement. He is awaiting feedback from Hertfordshire County Council.
  • Green oasis in Sopwell Lane. Cllr. Alun Davies has established that the patch of land that we would like to improve is owned by St Albans District Council. He advised that it is unlikely that the Council would have any objection to SAPHRA members implementing a planting scheme and he suggested that we submit our ideas for planting. As the members from Sopwell Lane who had suggested that we do something were not present further action was deferred till our next meeting.
  • Condition of wall at Holywell Hill end of Sopwell Lane. The rendering is again coming off the wall and the Highways Authority had been forced to close part of the pavement on safety grounds. The District Council are putting pressure on the owners of the wall to rectify the problem.
  • Void in Albert Street (in the boundary wall of Ryder Seed Mews) .Cllr. Davies advised that City Neighbourhoods Committee funds for a planting scheme had been approved and that Council Officers would implement it. He suggested that SAPHRA should submit ideas to Head of Community Services for consideration.
  • Albert Street car park. The available City Neighbourhoods Committee funds did not stretch quite far enough to cover this work. Cllr Davies suggested that we submit a fresh application for consideration next year and offered to send us the necessary application form.
  • Flattening of speed cushions in Albert Street. Cllr. Chris White is continuing to chase the County Council’s contractor to replace them.
  • Keyfield Terrace car park. Cllr. Alec Campbell has advised that Keyfield Terrace car park charges have been revised in the recent Car Park Order. We are now waiting for the Order to be implemented.
  • Ryder Seed Mews Estate rubbish bins. Eric mentioned that rubbish was accumulating around the bins. Cllr Davies offered to bring the problem to the attention of the waste team at St Albans District Council.
  • Pearce’s Walk planter. We have established that this is Council land therefore we could improve the environment by further planting. If we organise a working party for the Sopwell Lane green space we could tackle this planter at the same time.

10. St Albans Civic Society. Charles Davies had established that SAPHRA is a member of the St Albans Civic Society. He has arranged that in future copies of the Society’s newsletter will be sent to the Chair of SAPHRA.

11. Transition Streets. We had run out of time so this item was deferred until the next meeting.

12. Any other business It was agreed that our annual barbeque would be held on Sunday 6th September 2015 (providing a suitable venue was available).

13. Date of next meeting: Proposed for Monday 8th June 2015 (subject to a meeting room being available).