Grays Central Community Forum

Open Meeting

 

Tuesday February 9th   , 2010

 

Attended: Geoffrey Nathan, Ross Bannister, Claire Bannister, Yash Gupta,  Ursula Garwood, Colin Baker, Jean Dexter, A. Robson, C. Keeble, Cathy Kent, Joe O’Neill, Sharon Smith, Andrea Gull, Peter Liggins, B. Monk, M.Curran, Irene Lewsey, Martin Heath, V.Wright, D.Sedano, K.Edore.

 

Apologies: P. Harris, J. Kent, N.Warren, C.Spencer, Helen Cunningham, E.Rawlings, Rita Broomfield.

 

 

1.     Meeting opened at 7.30pm, All welcomed.

2.     Apologies: . Harris, J. Kent, N.Warren, C.Spencer, Helen Cunningham, E.Rawlings, Rita Broomfield..

3.     Agreed minutes of last meeting

4.     Matters arising:

a)     Clarence Road Licence review:  Complaint raised to the council with regards to the procedure at the licensing committee meeting. Awaiting revised date for new review.

b)     Rest Gardens Shelter Refurbishment: Meeting agreed quote and voted for the work to go ahead. Discussed the possibility of opening shutters daily in line with other park facilities. Concerns raised with regard to the policing and the possibility of ne’er do well’s frequenting the area. Meeting to delay any decision on the opening of the shutters until more investigation has been made to the viability of this. Meeting discussed Grays Town Park and the lack of monitoring of the site as we have no park wardens. It was felt that the park is under-used due to the facilities being not always open and the lack of maintenance as a whole. Although the gates are locked at dusk, there is easy access to the park from other areas.   Yash requested that the forum put forward a letter to the council to request that the park is made more secure, particularly at night. A suggestion has been made that we request an extension of the alcohol free zone to be include the park and up to and including the Rest Gardens. Another suggestion was to make all public spaces alcohol free zones?

c)     Ward Avenue Allotment Association Application for funding.  Andrea Gull and Peter Lingard attended the meeting as representatives of the association and explained their application. The relevant quotations were handed to the treasurer and the meeting agreed the support of the application.

 

5.     a) Adult Keep Fit Equipment

The work has been awarded to RSS and the council have completed the relevant paperwork to secure all the funding for the project. We await further information on dates for the works to commence.  It was noted that the grass areas of the park that were destroyed by the use of the park as a storage facilities for equipment for a work programme in Ward Avenue have not been made good. The Chief Estate Officer, Phil Striper, has okayed the ground but the forum do not agree. A follow up to the estates officer is required to ensure that the park grass areas are laid back to lawn.

b) The planter by Quarry Hill School in Bradleigh Avenue will ask if     

         the school would like to take on the care of the planter. If not  

         we will approach MIND to see if they can look after it.

c) Little Havens Children’s Hospice. To make the forum aware that

         February 12th is a fundraising day for the hospice and request

         that as many people as possible are able to join in. The request 

         to wear either pink or blue on the Friday and everybody that

         completes this donates £1 to the fund.  There is also a Barn Dance being held at the Baptist Church Hall to celebrate 125 years of the hall.  The dance is on February 27th and will cost £20 per family. All welcome to attend. All proceeds to the Little Havens and St Lukes Hospice

d) Bradleigh Avenue Trees.

    It is proposed to replace the existing Horse Chestnut Trees with new, younger Sweet Chestnut Trees. A Ms Wood from TBC will be attending the next meeting to discuss the tree situation.

 

6.     Chairs Report

a.     The chair attended a meeting with other forum chairs to discuss funding for the next year. The budget has been cut again this year from £150,000 to £146,000. We are unaware as yet of the budget each forum will receive for the next financial year. A question was asked if the chairs had protested at this decision. GN stated that there had been insufficient time to discuss the matter. RB asked Lyn Gittings if she knew about budgets being allocated for next year? GN stated that Terry Piccolo has raised the question about a change of the funding calculation to be based on the number of houses in the forum catchment.  A concern was raised that forums that had parks still had to manage and fund these areas and that these were for the benefit of all Thurrock residents and so the number of houses would not be the fairest method.GN stated that we would find out about the budget on the 23rd February and will bring to the next meeting. Copy of the email re: funding to be sent to RB from GN.

7.     Correspondence

None received.

 

8.     Finance and Funding

 

Update given from Treasurer

 

9.       Any Other Business:

a.     Gracelands- Question to the police- Can they help? RB has spoken to John French and he has said that the PCSO’s will concentrate on the area. Can the police produce a Crime List about the number of incidents that Graceland has been involved in? KE said that with any review of a licence all relevant information held by the police is given to the licensing committee. 

b.     Concerns raised about the state of the alleyways at the back of Clarence Road in particular, but lots more are in a very poor state. Who is responsible? There are cars parked and left in them, for example. KE stated that any parking problem in the alleyways is a council responsibility. It was mentioned about the Richmond Road Alley project and the programme to clear them up. The meeting felt that it is the council responsibility to maintain these areas effectively. The skips that used to be made available for rubbish have disappeared and people appear to be using alleyways instead?

c.     Summer Play Network Dates:  The meeting agreed to fund one day at a cost of £725 and will liaise with them to arrange a mutually convenient date.

d.      Discussed the lack of bins in the forum area. There is currently a borough wide project being put together to look at the bin situation – It is still under discussion.     

e.     Congratulations went to Yash Gupta on his award he received for his work as a councillor. Yash informed the meeting about his day and his visit to the Emirates Stadium.

f.       There have been reports of a discussion group with regard to the State Cinema and its future. Cathy Kent will investigate and bring forward the information on the situation.

 

Meeting Closed 9.10 pm

 

Next Meeting: Tuesday March 9th, 2010 at 7.30 pm