Balsall Residents Assoc newsletter â 11th April 2015[1]
Transcription
Balsall Residents Assoc newsletter â 11th April 2015[1]
THE COMMUNICATOR BALSALL COMMON VILLAGE RESIDENTS ASSOCIATION E-Newsflash 11th April 2015 email: [email protected] Editor - David Felthouse Dear Residents, Herewith the minutes of last year’s Residents Association Annual General Meeting as a further reminder that this year’s AGM will be held this coming Thursday, 16th April, starting at 7:30pm, in the Balsall Common Village Hall, Station Road. As previously announced, it is combined with Balsall Parish Council’s Annual Assembly. Also you will see that it is an early start to this year’s Balsall Common Festival with the heats to the “Balsall’s Got the Voice” competition. The first of these is on this coming Friday, 17th April; there are still places available in this heat. Please note children can come to watch if accompanied by an adult. To complete a busy week there is a Jumble Sale, on Saturday, in St Peter’s Church Hall. The newsflash is completed by two notices from our Neighbourhood Police team. I am sure you have read in the local press about the hit & run incident which left a 93 year old woman seriously injured; the police are asking for help in finding the car which they believe could be involved. It is a silver Chrysler Voyager and it is likely to have damage to the front near side. The team would also like to re-state the warning that the scam to obtain credit/debit cards and PIN numbers by use of a courier is still a serious threat. Finally, there have been a number of thefts of vehicle number plates, so be on your guard. With the increasing use of Automatic Number Plate Recognition systems it is likely that such incidents will increase. It is worth considering fitting unscrewable security fittings. David Felthouse BALSALL COMMON VILLAGE RESIDENTS ASSOCIATION Minutes of Annual General Meeting held on Thursday 17th April 2014 Present: K Tindall (Chair), D Felthouse (Vice Chair), T Hughes (Treasurer), C Shadbolt (Minutes), D Ellis, W Heard, J Lea and P Lucas plus 12 members of the public. 1. Apologies R Hatton, 2. Minutes of the previous AGM were accepted. Proposed CS, Seconded DF . 3. Matters Arising – none. 4. Chairman’s report – see attached, the report was noted. A resident new to the village, who live on the Kenilworth Road stated that they have noticed a significant increase in the volume of HGV traffic since January and asked if there was any reason for this and if anything could be done about it. KT stated that Jaguar Land Rover had been given permission to store vehicles near Fen End whilst premises alterations are taking place. There are some large delivery vehicles passing through the village but that is usually between 11 – 11.30pm. New supermarkets in the surrounding villages may add to this problem. HS2 will also make the problem considerably worse during the construction phase with up to 750 additional vehicles a day passing up the Kenilworth Road. There has also been some expansion at the aggregate pits just outside the village. 5. Treasurers Report – see attached, the report was adopted, Proposed DH, Seconded DE . 6. Elections of Committee and Officers, the following were elected: Will Heard and Paul Lucas are stepping down as committee members and our thanks go to them for the work they have done on our behalf. Committee Members Chairman Vice-Chairman Secretary Treasurer E-News Editor David Ellis, David Felthouse, Rod Hatton, Terry Hughes, Judy Lea, Charlotte Shadbolt, Keith Tindall Proposed KT, Seconded GP Keith Tindall David Felthouse Charlotte Shadbolt Terry Hughes David Felthouse Proposed DE Seconded WH 7. Questions / Comments covered the following topics:PL asked if Sixth Form representatives from Heart of England School would be interested in volunteering to join the committee. CS agreed to approach the Head of Sixth Form in this respect. G Price commented on the lack of Solihull Councillors present at the AGM, and other residents present stated they wished their disappointment to be passed onto the Councillors. KT undertook to write to them. R Lloyd stated Balsall Parish Council had signed a charter with SMBC to encourage them to liaise with Parish Councils and consult residents. This appears to have had no impact. 8. Presentation on Severn Trent Services by Leanne Town. 9. Resolution to oppose the HS2 Hybrid Bid. The following resolution was proposed by KT and seconded by RL and passed unanimously: Balsall Common Village Residents Association hereby resolves to oppose the HS2 Hybrid Bill, and to Petition Parliament in order to attempt to mitigate the impact of HS2 on the local community. RL stated that he plans to hold a drop in session shortly at the library or Police Shop to advise residents who wish to petition in respect of HS2. This can be undertaken by individuals and costs £20, PL suggested using some of the BCVRA to help people who may be put off by the cost. 10. AOB. JL wishes to thank the following local businesses who donated prizes for the raffle: Balsall Common Pharmacy, Co-op, One Stop Stores, Angela Jayne’s Florist, Balsall Common Barbers, Shane Collins and John Taylor Butchers. Next Meeting Tuesday 6th May, 7.30pm in the Westlake Room at the back of the Village Hall. TREASURER’S REPORT Annual accounts April 2013 - April 2014 Business Premium account £ 168.66 0.08 168.74 Opening balance Interest Closing balance Community account Opening balance Proceeds of Raffle Closing Balance 506.53 42.00 548.53 Balance Sheet Opening balance April 2013 Add income Closing balance - April 2014 675.19 42.08 717.27 T.E.Hughes Honorary Treasurer Annual General Meeting Chairman’s Address 17th April 2014 Once again it has been a busy year for the Association in responding to both new and long standing challenges that affect our residents. During the past year we raised objections to two major housing development proposals in the surrounding Greenbelt, one off Magpie Lane the other off Meeting House Lane, and I am pleased to say both were ultimately withdrawn by the developers. A new Sainsbury’s convenience store and filling station opened in January, but the long saga of the Chattaway’s site continues with the latest information pointing to it being a Tesco convenience store opening later in the year, we are told the development will start within 4 weeks. There is clearly a local demand for affordable housing, and we gave our support to two proposals for apartments in the centre of Balsall Common. One being an extension of Arden House the other being conversion of the eye sore known as the Partco building, but unfortunately although planning permission was granted nothing has taken place – bit like the Chattaway’s site. The Association has supported residents in the need to control school term parking in Gipsy Lane and Close, and I can report that parking restrictions are now being finalised which it’s hoped will improve the situation for those residents. However it is feared that the restrictions are likely to push the problem into other roads around the Heart of England School. Turning now to the two main ongoing issues affecting our community; Birmingham Airport runway extension and resulting flight route changes, and HS2. On the flight routes we have made continued representations and objections to Birmingham airport, both during the consultation and after, opposing routes 5 and 6 as unacceptable and proposing departure route 7 which would have less impact on communities living under the flightpath. Unfortunately the airport, despite being presented with a technical document prepared by pilots supporting route 7, has chosen to ignore it. So from 1st May they will run two six month trial periods on route Option’s 5 and 6 to track noise levels. It’s therefore important that residents monitor flights and report unacceptable noise and off route aircraft to the airport. Many thanks to Dave Ellis for all the work he has put in on this issue and the knowledge he brings to the Association. DE added that a portable noise monitor will be situated in Magpie Lane from 16th June due to the route trials. He urged residents to complain if the aircraft noise bothers them otherwise the new routes will be introduced and it will be too late. KT added that the residents of Balsall Common and Berkswell needed to work together on issues such as these and that the BCVRA would keep pushing for the Parish Councils to work together to produce a local plan. And now to HS2. Where do I start? Well the White Elephant is still charging forward despite more damaging evidence showing how insane it is and that it needs to be culled. During the year the Residents Association has responded to consultations on the Draft Environmental Statement, Property Compensation and the mammoth 50,000 page long Environmental Statement, commenting on and raising objections to the many issues and the impact HS2 will have on this community and surrounding area; affecting the lives of each and everyone of us even if we don’t live near the line. The next stage will be Petitioning Parliament for mitigation – and so the fight continues. To end on a more positive tone, the problems of anti social behaviour around the village, especially in the Library car park, have subsided and we hope though the work of the Police and others this will continue. I would like to pay special thanks to Will Heard for his efforts in helping to resolve the problem of youths gathering in the Library car park. As many of you will know we now have a defibrillator installed in the Village Centre outside the pharmacy, and a number of residents have been trained in its use. Hopefully it will not be used too often, but it’s there if it’s needed. Finally, I would like to thank the Committee for their support during the past twelve months, and pay special thanks to David Felthouse for all his hard work in publishing the much valued on line Communicator and to Charlotte for taking the Minutes. Balsall’s Got the Voice competition Launch Balsall Common Festival organisers are gearing up for the start of this year's Balsall's Got the Voice competition, with sequence of first round qualifying heats that gets underway on Friday 17th April 2015 at The Berkswell and District Royal British Legion. a “The idea behind the competition is community involvement as much as it is about the contest itself”, says Balsall Common Festival Chairman Craig Burgess: "We want as many people as possible to come out and enjoy the qualifying rounds, from competitors friends and family, to anyone from the community. All are welcome to attend the Heats and Quarter Finals at The Royal British Legion.” "Last year's qualifiers were lots of fun and people really got into the shows. We have bar facilities available through every round of competition, so everybody can come and relax at the end of a hard week's work." All three first round heats and a further Quarter Finals night will all be held at The Berkswell & District Royal British Legion, before the competition arrives at the Balsall Common Festival on Saturday 19th September, where a lucky dozen will compete through Semi Finals and Finals on the Main Festival Stage. Competition Entries “We’re still looking at applications to see who to invite to the first qualifiers on Friday 17th April at the moment,” says Craig Burgess: “So anyone who is able to rush a quick snippet of themselves performing to [email protected] could still receive an invitation to come and play on Friday.” “We’re also interested in hearing from any local artists who don’t wish to compete, are maybe already established on the local music scene and would like to perform as part of our shows while the judges are deliberating.” All enquiries are invited by email to: [email protected] Full competition details, including rules and how to enter can be found at the following page at the Balsall Common Festival website: http://bcfest.co.uk/docstore/TheVoiceRulesPDF.pdf Balsall’s Got the Voice in the news http://www.balsallcom.com/2015/04/balsalls-got-the-voice-2015-competition-launch/ Balsall’s Got the Voice online For regular updates on Balsall’s Got the Voice and Balsall Common Festival visit: bcfest.co.uk facebook.com/bc.festival twitter.com/bcfest @bcfest Balsall’s Got the Voice is an integral part of the Balsall Common Festival. The Balsall Common Festival website at bcfest.co.uk is currently under construction and should be in full working order by next Friday 17th April 2015.