Chairmans Report 2009
CLOUGH HALL RESIDENTS ASSOCIATION
4th Annual General Meeting
Hollinwood Sheltered Housing - Tuesday 14th July 2009 at 7.30pm.
CHAIRMANS REPORT
Welcome to our 4th AGM. Thank you for joining us tonight and for your continued support which is very much appreciated.
The last 12 months have been very difficult for many Residents in Communities throughout the Country; the recent Political upheaval, the Credit Crunch and the impact of this on jobs, housing, pensions, savings Etc and will continue to have an impact on our lives for many years to come. Hopefully the current situation will be grasped as an opportunity to create an open, honest, fair, transparent and accountable form of democracy, which I believe we all want.
During the past 12 months we have made some progress with several items. However, there are a number of projects we have not made progress with due, in the main, to lack of funding. This will not detract us from pushing for satisfactory conclusions to these issues.
Joint Forum's. It is I believe a good opportunity to mention the recent joint forum "Care in the Community" which was a joint venture with our good friends the Newcastle based 50+ Forum. I have received some really good positive feed back to this forum which was well attended, with good speakers covering a range of topics and many questions from the floor all of which were answered fully. It is the intention to hold similar forums on an annual basis to cover topics which we jointly believe will be of interest to all of us.
Clough Hall School. We continue to support Clough Hall School with their Community Involvement programme. Recently through this programme a free Computer Course was made available at the School for residents in the local area and this will be repeated later in the year. Phil Lovatt from the School will be joining one of our next meeting's and will provide a synopsis of the next course which will start with a very basic introduction to computing and lead on to more advanced computing, the purpose of this is to provide something for everybody.
A new feature of this Community programme is the introduction of a monthly film show at the School. Several have been held, and they will run through to the end of 2009 and we are already looking at suitable films for 2010. These film shows are free and so are the refreshments provided at the end of the film. We shall continue to advertise on our Web Site and if you wish to attend please telephone reception at the school several days prior to the film and book your place.
It is pleasing to note the increased levels of Academic achievement at the School, credit goes to the Students and to Mr Tait and all the staff currently at the School for all the hard work to achieve current levels of academic excellence.
Safer Routes to School. As you are aware this programme is well advanced, some work already completed in Boathorse Road. As a residents Group, after viewing the plans to cover work in Butt Lane we have written to Staffordshire Highways to suggest that ramps are not the ideal solution to slow down speeding traffic, surely the use of modern technology such as Electronic Speed restriction signs, supported with camera's, would be far more effective. We will keep you informed of the responses we receive.
The young persons assessment centre, Westmorland Avenue. The surgeries we introduced some three years ago are now due to undergo a change in emphasis. The Unit, in its current form, is closing on Friday the July 17th 2009.
- Currently under consideration is Security of the building which may mean having Security in place until the Unit is finally sold or taken on by a different sector of either the County or Borough Council.
- To date the Unit, not offered internally or externally to prospective users until its final closure.
The Surgeries will continue and it is hoped that Residents will attend to ensure the best possible outcome for our Area.
The Surgeries have been successful and I would like to thank Marie Ryan and her staff at Westmorland, Clr J Taylor and the Police for making the Surgeries the success they have proved to be.
The next Surgery is scheduled for Wednesday 22nd July 2009 - 5.30pm - At Hollinwood.
Clough Hall Lake. We continue to push for the dredging of the Lake and recently we have secured further quotes from private contractors to carry out this work. The cost is currently prohibitive. Before we continue to organise further Meetings at the Borough Council we intend to send out a letter to Residents in Park Avenue and Kinnersley Avenue requesting confirmation that they are in agreement with this project. This one is proving to be difficult because of the cost, approx £300,000, therefore, we need maximum Resident support before we attempt to progress this one further.
Kidsgrove Police. The rapport created with our local Neighbourhood Policing Team is excellent and the regular updates at our Meetings provided by PC David Woodward are very much appreciated.
Planning for Real. As Chair of CHRA I have continued to support this initiative and sit on the Steering Committee. Recently discussions have commenced to ascertain whether or not to create a Community based Forum to cover Butt Lane and Talke. My view is that this matter should be considered carefully, the original concept of PFR was well received, some 3000 flags were put onto the models created of our area and many issues and ideas were listed. The concept of PFR is sound and proven, the main aim is to provide the opportunity for Communities to have their say. PFR is still very much alive and kicking, the initial work done by the Police, on-going youth work at Talke, work done at Parrots Drumble and assuming a recent grant request is granted, work will commence in the Park at Talke. All of these things take time, it isn't possible to do everything at once, there are many problems to face with each project, a bigger forum, well supported, will I believe have more chance of achieving some of these goals. Many issues cross boundaries, for example Anti Social Behaviour much of which is fuelled by alcohol which goes a long way to produce vandalism and large groups of youngsters gathering together which many of us see as intimidating. Representative from several other groups have participated in initial talks and provided PFR with much food for thought. When final decisions are taken I will pass this on through our Residents Group
Litter Picks. We recently organised a Litter Pick which involved 5 locations in Clough Hall, in total 45 bags of litter were collected, our thanks go to Residents who took part and to the Borough Council for providing vehicles to remove the bags. Perhaps when we organise the next litter pick a few more Residents will join us. The environment is important and I certainly do not prescribe to the view "leave it for someone else to pick up". This is an idle approach and does not sit well in my book. Here in Clough Hall we are surrounded by Green wooded areas, Lakes and Parks, and in this modern age I believe it is important to protect the environment as much as possible, litter does not deposit itself.
Committee Meetings. As stated in last years Chairman's report, we have reduced the number of meetings this year to 7 and we shall continue in the same vein in 2010. However, we do intend to open up a few of our Committee Meetings to any members who wish to attend, I will let you have further details of this shortly.
Our accounts are in good order; Tony Mottram will go through the latest audited figures in a few minutes time. Thank you for continuing to support our Lottery competition, our raffles and quiz nights, and assuming you continue to do so, there is no reason why we cannot remain in a sound financial position. Our thanks go to the various organisations that have helped with Grants:-
- Community Chest
- Staffordshire Grass Roots
- Give it Sum
I would like to thank our Treasurer Correna Gallacher for doing such a good job in looking after our Accounts and I would like to thank Tony Mottram for auditing our Accounts.
In conclusion I would like to thank all who have supported and continue to support our Residents Group. There are so many to thank for their support too many to mention in this report. It is a pleasure to serve as your Chairman.
Graham Sutton......................... ( Chair - Clough Hall Residents Association )
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