Minutes of monthly meeting held Wednesday November 9, 2016 at 19.30
PRESENT Bob Reid Chairman
Roger Allen Vice Chairman
Carol Parkin Secretary/Minutes Secretary
Mike Parkin Membership Secretary
Tracy Holmes Planning Officer
Cllr. May Haines and approximately 30 wardens and members.
APOLOGIES Terry Stewart, Mohan Iyengar, John Gunton, Paul Fearnley, Dawn Goodson
Christine Blake, Julie Reid.
The Chairman extended a welcome to those present.
MINUTES OF OCTOBER 2016 MEETING
The minutes of the meeting held in October were accepted as a correct record.
Methods of sending out minutes to members were discussed.
MATTERS ARISING
Our Steering Committee are keeping a close eye on this even though nothing is happening at present.
Roy Pointer (RP) asked if Cllr. Haines could give him advance warning of Council intentions in order that there is time to make representation. Cllr. Haines responded that she is not in a position now to confirm which Council meeting will be dealing with an alternative plan.
NEW MAGAZINE
The Chairman (BR) reported that he feels the new magazine was a success and that he has had a great deal of positive feedback. He thanked Roger Allen for his work on procuring the advertising, John Gunton, the Editor and the wardens for their work in distributing the magazine which is co-ordinated by John Sprackling. There was a box of magazines available for attendees at the meeting to take if they wished. The Vice Chairman, Roger Alan (RA) reported that the new magazine had cost no more to print than the old black and white one, due to changing printer.
RP suggested printing stick on labels for the front of the spare magazines with an invitation to join our organisation, and distributing these in areas under threat from the proposed parking schemes, as this might encourage people to support our cause. Various methods of encouraging new members through the distribution of the magazine were discussed. Mike Parkin (MP) suggested a label on a magazine addressed to the Chairman of the board of a block of flats who are not block members asking if the board could consider block membership, as there are some 80 blocks of flats in our area who are not members. He asked that any ideas for blocks of flats be addressed to him as Membership Secretary. John Morison said that a decision was taken by the board of the flats he lives in to pay for block membership from their service charges as they feel this is important.
RA suggested that MP could approach the Managing Agents of flats in our area who take out advertisements in the magazines, suggesting that if they can introduce new members they can have a free page of editorial in the magazine.
PLANNING ISSUES
3 Beaumont Road. Demolish Existing house and build two dwellings – granted.
The Gatehouse, 6 Tower Road West. Use of gatehouse as self-contained accommodation – refused.
5/7 Chaddesley Glen. Demolition of existing buildings and construct two blocks of four apartments
Brought to the Committee with the recommendation to refuse; the committee granted permission.
14 Chester Road. Erection of a side extension. An appeal has been lodged.
30 Tower Road. Outline application for 12 flats. This has not yet been decided.
15B Bury Road. Tree works appeal. A split decision. Tracy Holmes, planning officer, explained that some trees are to come down and others still protected.
2 Western Avenue. Erection of a garden Room. Grant with conditions.
14 Pinewood Road. Permission has been granted for a block of flats and the application for an HMO has been withdrawn. RR wrote to Stephen Thorn (Head of Planning) to ask why it had taken so long for the application for an HMO had been removed as this property has been used as an HMO for some three months without permission. BR read the answering letter from Stephen Thorne.
It explained that as the application was incomplete it took a long time to get the Applicant to comply and then it was Red Carded by Cllr. May Haines so had to go to a decision before which it was withdrawn.
Cllr Haines denied that her ‘red carding’ this application had delayed matters. Christine Norman pointed out that this application had only been withdrawn once the application to build flats had been granted, and that the building is still being operated as an HMO. Cllr Haines said that as soon as she knew that the application for an HMO had been withdrawn, she asked the Enforcement Officers to pursue this as the use as an HMO should cease. In the Light of what Christine Norman reported, Cllr Haines will follow this up.
John Sprackling asked if Chris Stracey could ask the ABI to check the insurance for this building. Christine Norman also asked if there could be a check on whether the correct Council Tax for this building was paid. JS said that this was being investigated. Roger Alan asked if there is a safety issue here. Roy Pointer suggested a Freedom of Information Request to check the history of this Application. There was more discussion on why the Council has not enforced that the operation of 14 Pinewood Road as an HMO should cease as to operate it as an HMO is, allegedly, illegal. Once again Cllr. Haines said that she would follow this up.
Martello Lodge, Martello Park. Change of height – grant with conditions.
24 Ormonde Road. Loft Conversion to First Floor Flat – grant with conditions.
38A The Avenue. Demolish existing dwelling and erect five houses – Appeal has been allowed.
5 Ormonde Road. CLOPUD application to confirm works were lawfully commenced – appeal allowed.
4 Brackenhill. Demolish existing dwelling and erect two houses – Appeal dismissed.
46/48 Tower Road. Erection of 28 retirement properties not yet decided. McCarthy Stone have now put in formal planning for the retirement flats
BR feels that there are adequate parking spaces for these flats, despite concerns.
Land by 8 Martello Road South
Erection of a block of flats – granted
1 Beaumont Road – A resident pointed out that despite the efforts of Alex Roden, she has just had the result of the Judicial Review, and it had gone against her.
RESIDENTS’ PARKING SCHEME
RA summarised the latest discussions on this for Cllr Haines, who was not present at our last meeting. After a meeting between RA, BR and Steve Dean of Poole Council the Association was told that a Residents’ Parking Scheme is not Government Policy, not local policy and there is no funding available to re-introduce it. As things, have moved on since the scheme was introduced and two of the ‘problem’ roads opted not to join it, the roads have now become a car park for LV Insurance as parking at their site is no longer sufficient. RA asked Cllr Haines if Cllrs have the option of a ‘Notice of Motion’. Cllr. Haines replied that there is no option with that name, but there are similar options available. As the Association, has done all that it can on this question, RA asked if there were something that could be done by our elected Councillors. May replied that there was, and the options had all been explored by Cllr Iyengar and we are still on ‘a merry go round’. She went on to say that there was going to be a review of all parking in Poole and wondered if this question could be raised then. It appears that all possible has been done by both our Association and the Councillors.
Neil Denning said that a parking review of our area was promised by the Councillors in 2014 but this was never carried out. There is a question of congestion, emergency vehicle access, obstruction, and Mr. Denning thinks that it must be possible for something to be done to alleviate this – yellow lines? White lines? Cllr. Haines said that she would refer the problem to Cllr Iyengar again.
Chris Stracy pointed out that there are similar problems in Whitecliffe and he feels the main reason for these problems is just that there are too many cars. MP asks why can the Council not alleviate the problem by painting parking bays on these roads.
ACCOUNTS TO DATE
At the end of October, the Accounts showed £31,918. BR pointed out that this figure includes most of the revenue from advertising in the latest magazine, but not the cost of printing. Copies of the accounts were available at the meeting.
ANY OTHER BUSINESS
George Perrins of Canford Cliffs Land Society (CCLS) had asked BR if the Association would consider increasing the amount of the donation by the Assn. to CCLS for the lights in Canford Cliffs Village this Christmas, as the lights are going to be vastly improved and will therefore cost CCLS more than in previous years i.e. £8,000 rather than £5,000. The Treasurer had informed BR that £750 was the Assn’s usual donation and he had already budgeted that amount for this year. There was a lot of discussion on this; the main objection being that the Traders in Haven Road should increase their donations, if in fact they donate at all.
SA (Stan Alfert) proposed that a donation of £750 be given and this was seconded by Roy Pointer.
TH (Tracy Holmes) proposed that a donation of £1,000 be given. This was seconded by CP (Carol Parkin).
There was more discussion.
SA pointed out once again that he had proposed a motion and this had still not been done.
There was still more discussion on the rules of the Assn.
BR said that he would put the rules of the Assn. about spending money on the Agenda for our next meeting, and if any member is unhappy with the way things are dealt with now, they can come along to the meeting.
It was eventually decided to hold a vote of the members present as to whether the Assn. donated £750 or £1000 to CCLS to help with the cost of the Christmas Lights in Canford Cliffs Village.
BR asked for a show of hands to vote for donating £750. 13 members were in favour of this and 1 member voted against.
BR then asked for a show of hands to vote for increasing the donation to £1,000.
6 members were in favour.
It was therefore agreed that an amount of £750 would be donated to CCLS.
John Sprackling asked Cllr Haines when the Council were going to introduce a charge £300 for memorial benches, and when was this approved. Cllr. Haines was unable to answer this question and she said that she would find out.
BR informed the meeting that the Council had discovered that the foundations to the promenade are not adequate for their plans to build more beach huts by building a second storey to the existing beach huts. This will be discussed more fully at our next meeting.
JS said that the Association usually sent three representatives to the meeting of Residents Associations, Commerce and Industry. Cllr. Haines said that this would be on December 2, 2016, and
that the invitations had not yet gone out and maybe BR could decide who would attend then.
DATE OF NEXT MEETING
The next meeting will be held on December 14. Mulled wine and mince pies will be available after the meeting.
The meeting closed at 9.00pm.