Minutes of the meeting on 04 September 2017

Minutes of Annual General Meeting held on Monday 04 September 2017 at 8pm
at the Clarion Collection Hotel, Holywell Hill.

 

 

1.    Present: Avril Allen, Jacqueline Briggs, Cllr Alec Campbell, Kam Cheung, Mary Green, Anthony Hyde, Pamela Johnson, Catherine Jones, Angela King, Barry Knight, Roger Morton, Mary Plackett, Elaine Rainsford, Cllr Chris White

 

2.    Apologies for absence: Bernadette Blade, Tim Boatswain, Alison Burrows, Ghislein de Cruz, Cllr Alun Davies, Jenny Johnson, Linda Matthewman

 

3.    Minutes of previous meeting: The minutes of the meeting held on Monday 05 September 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 advised that we began the financial year with a balance of £354.22, received £120 and spent £85 which left us with a balance at year end of £389.22.

 

6.    Election of officers: Our Vice Chair had moved away during the year. Angela King kindly agreed to take on the role. The remaining officers were all willing to continue for the coming year. The meeting agreed, unanimously, that the officers going forward would be as follows:

 

            Chair                           Roger Morton

            Vice Chair                   Angela King

            Secretary                    Cathy Jones

            Treasurer                    Anthony Hyde

            Webmaster                 Richard Barran

 

       There being no further business the AGM was declared closed.

 

Minutes of Meeting held on Monday 04 September 2017 at 8pm
at the Clarion Collection Hotel, Holywell Hill.

 

1.    Present:  Avril Allen, Jacqueline Briggs, Cllr Alec Campbell, Kam Cheung, Mary Green, Anthony Hyde, Pamela Johnson, Catherine Jones, Angela King, Barry Knight, Roger Morton, Mary Plackett, Elaine Rainsford, Cllr Chris White

 

2.    Apologies: Bernadette Blade, Tim Boatswain, Alison Burrows, Ghislein de Cruz, Cllr Alun Davies, Jenny Johnson, Linda Matthewman

 

3.    Minutes of previous meeting: The minutes of the meeting held on Monday 03 July 2017 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 advised that the balance in the bank now stands at £389.22.

 

6.    Our local environment:

  • Lorry ban / speed restriction / pinch-point in Sopwell Lane:  There have been no further developments since our last meeting. We are still awaiting a date for action from Herts County Council.

 

  • Green oasis in Sopwell Lane: Morrisons Utility Services (MUS) are currently replacing water pipes in Sopwell Lane and Roger has been liaising with Cllr Alec Campbell and Cllr Chris White with regard to some issues that have arisen.

 

  • MUS have used the Green Oasis as a temporary office space and dumping ground for materials. They did not seek permission from the District Council to do this.
  • MUS attempted to stop all resident’s parking in Sopwell Lane. They did not seek permission to do this.

 

In light of this, Morrisons have sought retrospective permission on all counts and the District Council will be pressing them to reinstate the Green Oasis to a reasonable condition with a few agreed enhancements. SAPHRA has been invited to suggest what those enhancements might be.

 

It was pointed out that residents of Sopwell Lane have been told that the gas pipes in Sopwell Lane will soon be replaced by MUS.  It might be as well to delay improvement works to the Green Oasis in case it is again used as a work site.

 

Roger did point out that some work had been carried out on the wall at the Albert Street property backing on to the Green Oasis, but this is not yet complete. Work cannot continue while MUS have fenced off the complete Oasis.

 

  • The void in Albert Street (in the boundary wall of Ryder Seed Mews): The planter, that the working party from Ryder Seed Mews provided, has proved to be a good deterrent to the major fly tipping that was previously taking place. The working party will continue to monitor it and report any problems.

 

  • Markings in CPZ car park in Albert Street: St Albans District Council have re-marked the individual bays in the car park following prompting by Cllr Alun Davies. This completes the improvements to the car park that SAPHRA had been seeking for many years.

 

  • Street Cleaning: Street cleaning has improved in the area but some issues remain with regards to weeds on pavements and in gutters. The decaying weeds are unsightly and trap litter and detritus so that sweeping is ineffective. Cllr Alec Campbell will be taking this up with the contractors.

 

7.    City Neighbourhoods Committee:

  •  The CNC have not met since the last meeting.
  • The next CNC meeting will be held on 27 September 2017.
  • The minutes of CNC meetings are available on the District Council website.

 

8.    Review of family barbeque: The weather was very overcast on the afternoon of the barbeque and sadly less than a dozen people attended. The general consensus was that we should continue to hold a family barbeque but it would be better to hold it sometime in July before the school summer holidays. We agreed to hold next year’s barbeque on Sunday 15 July 2018.

 

9.    Register of local contractors: Members were reminded to submit any details of contractors that they could personally recommend.

 

10.  Consultation on controlled parking zone M: We are still awaiting the outcome of the formal consultation.

 

11.  Any other business:

  • There is a missing street nameplate in Albert Street at the junction with Holywell Hill.  Cllr Alec Campbell had kindly reported it to St Albans District Council.
  • SAPHRA has received a grant, from Cllr Chris White’s locality fund, to buy bulbs and compost to plant in the grass verge at the junction of Sopwell Lane, Keyfield Terrace and Albert Street. Roger will arrange the planting of the bulbs.
  • Cllr Alec Campbell has offered to meet with local residents for a walkabout in SAPHRA’s area at 11am on Saturday 09 September 2017 to discuss any matters of concern.
  • There is a blocked drain outside 10 Albert Street. This will be reported to Herts County Council.
  • Due to obscured signage cars are exiting the Clarion Collection Hotel car park into Albert Street (wrongly) and some are then turning right and driving against the one-way traffic flow.
  • Parking Attendants are not issuing penalty notices for unauthorised parking in the Albert Street CPZ car parks because the signage is obscured by foliage.
  • A working party of SAPHRA members, armed with secateurs, will get together at noon on Saturday 09 September 2017 to clear the foliage causing the problems in the two points above.

 

12.  Date of next meetings: 06 November 2017, 08 January 2018, 05 March 2018, 14 May 2018, 02 July 2018, 03 September 2018 (AGM).

 

 

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).