Minutes of the meeting on 07 March 2016

Minutes of Meeting held on Monday 07 March 2016 at 8pm
at the Clarion Collection Hotel, Holywell Hill.

 

1. Present: Bernadette Blade, Jacqueline Briggs, Kam Cheung, Mary Green, Jennifer Johnson, Pam Johnson, Cathy Jones, Angela King, Linda Mathewman, Roger Morton, Mary Plackett, Cllr Chris White

 

2. Apologies for absence: Avril Allen, Katie Barron, Tim Boatswain, Cllr Alec Campbell, Charles Davies, Anthony Hyde

 

3. Minutes of previous meeting: The minutes of the meeting held on Monday 18 January 2016 had been circulated by email and a copy was made available at this meeting. The minutes were approved.

 

4. Matters arising: None

 

5. Finances: Anthony Hyde sent a message confirming that the balance in the bank still remained at £354.22.

 

6. Our local environment:

  • Lorry ban / speed restriction / pinch-point in Sopwell Lane: Herts County Council has begun a public consultation about the proposed speed restriction. Cllr Chris White will be meeting with Officers from Herts County Council on Wednesday 09 March 2016 and will send an email to Roger after that meeting.
  • Green oasis in Sopwell Lane: Work on planting will recommence in the Spring.
  • Missing bollards in Sopwell Lane (near the Hare And Hounds): Cllr Chris White has attempted to get Herts County Council to replace these but it appears unlikely that they will do so as part of highways maintenance. Cllr Chris White will suggest to Cllr Sandy Walkington that he funds the replacement of the bollards from his locality budget.
  • Void in Albert Street (in the boundary wall of Ryder Seed Mews): Phil Bruce-Green (Parks & Green Spaces Officer) is still working on a proposal to open up the void by removing the front part of the wall. This would let in more light and make planting possible. Roger will chase this up again.
  • Improving access to Albert Street Car Park: Roger has asked St Albans District Council for assistance in estimating the cost of the necessary work so that an application for a grant from the City Neighbourhoods Committee can be submitted. As yet no further information has been received. Roger will chase this up again.
  • Reinstatement of speed cushions in Albert Street: Cllr Chris White has tried to get Herts County Council to organise this - the work ought to have been part of the micro-surfacing work in Albert Street in 2014. He now thinks that he might have to pay for this work from his locality budget.
  • Pearce’s Walk planter: A decision on planting will be reached in the Spring.
  • Weeds Clearance: Cllr Chris White asked those present if they felt there was any improvement in the area which it was agreed there had been. Cllr Chris White is exploring the possibility of single -day road closures for maintenance work by both the District Council and the County Council.
  • Parking in London Road: It had been noticed that parking on London Road between the London Road Post Office and Watsons Walk is a grey area. The parking notices say that parking time is restricted but the parking wardens do not enforce this, which results in confusion. Cllr Chris White offered to investigate.
  • Path pipes (cross-pavement rain water drainage): Cllr Chris White informed the meeting that the County Council was certain that the responsibility for these rested with the owner of the property that was being drained. However, Cllr Chris White had become aware that Herts County Council had recently repaired some path pipes in Liverpool Road. He will seek clarification about this issue.
  • Reporting of Highways faults: Roger mentioned that he had used the Herts County Council on-line fault reporting facility to log a broken kerb in Albert Street and that this had been repaired reasonably quickly. This on-line reporting facility can also be used to report potholes, broken street lamps etc. Cllr Chris White also recommended that it should be used to log any highways issues.

 

7. City Neighbourhoods Committee:

  • The CNC had not met since SAPHRA’s last meeting. The minutes of CNC meetings are available on the District Council website
  • The next meeting is on 09 March 2016.

 

8. Registering pubs as Assets of Community Value: Roger and Cathy had attended a workshop held by CAMRA on this subject. They established that SAPHRA would be able to get help from CAMRA in registering pubs as ACV’s. Roger and Cathy will prepare an application in respect of one or two pubs and will then be collecting signatures from willing members of SAPHRA.

 

9. Register of local contractors: It was agreed that it would be useful for SAPHRA to maintain an informal list of local contractors who had successfully carried out work for residents of our area. Cathy offered to compile this list based on information provided by residents. Please let Cathy know if you wish to recommend any local business that has done work for you by supplying the name of the business, the work that they do and their contact details

 

10. Any other business: None

 

11. Date of next meeting: To be held on Monday 09 May 2016.

 

 

Note regarding Neighbourhood Watch: SAPHRA members are encouraged to sign up for the OWL (On-line Watch Liaison) scheme. SAPHRA can provide OWL sign-up forms to any interested party. It is also possible to sign up for OWL Messages via www.owl.co.uk. For those members who do not have email it is possible to obtain OWL Messages via a home phone (landline).