MInutes October 2008

CLOUGH HALL RESIDENTS' ASSOCIATION

MINUTES OF MEETING HELD ON TUESDAY 21^st OCTOBER 2008 AT HOLLINWOOD SHELTERED HOUSING at 7.30pm

PRESENT :-

COMMITTEE: - G Sutton, B Collis, M Moore, C Brough, T Dale, C Brammer, M Martin.

GUEST SPEAKERS: - PC D. Woodward, Sue Gray, John Cookson.

GUESTS :- Clr S Burgess, Clr D Richards, Clr L Griffiths, Clr J Evans, Mr R Burns, Mrs T Evans.

RESIDENTS: - 21

TOTAL ATTENDANCE: - 37

APOLOGIES: - John Gallacher, Correna Gallacher.

WELCOME/INTRODUCTION - Chairman - Mr G Sutton

The Chairman opened the meeting and thanked all members for attending; he expressed particular thanks to the Guest Speakers - PC David Woodward, Sue Gray & John Cookson - and to those members who helped with the distribution of leaflets. He also thanked SuPrint for their support and for the excellent Christmas cards which they have produced.

Chairman then covered the following points:-

AGENDA

PC David Woodward - Update on local issues.

Sue Gray - Police "Your First Point of Contact"

Refreshment break

John Cookson - Air Ambulance

Close of Meeting and Raffle draw.

31A - WESTMORLAND - the next Surgery will be on Monday 3^rd November 2008 at 5.00pm at Hollinwood Sheltered Housing. Residents are invited to attend. CHRA understand Residents' concerns over the future use of this Unit now that Staffordshire County Council have taken the decision to close it. Recent incidents will be discussed and the Surgeries will now focus on its future use.

CHRA QUIZ NIGHT - next Quiz to be held on Wednesday 3^rd December at Kidsgrove Cricket Club, 7.45 for prompt 8.00pm start. Tickets are priced at £2.50 and this includes refreshments. There are 20 tickets left; anyone wishing to purchase a ticket please contact Graham Sutton on 07789958262.

CHRISTMAS DINNER - to take place this year at the Travellers Rest in Scholar Green. Price is £12.95 a head and all places are sold. All deposits have been paid and the balance will be due in mid November.

CHRISTMAS CAROL EVENING - Still awaiting an answer from the Salvation Army; the date will be given ASAP.

NEIGHBOURHOOD WATCH CONFERENCE - the Chairman attended this with Tina Evans. It was an excellent conference which has provided some positive ideas for Speakers for next year.

MADELEY RESIDENTS ASSOCIATION - a new Group, very pro-active & supported strongly by Aspire. At their request the Chairman and Mike Reynolds, Chair of the 50+ Forum, joined their Committee Meeting on Tuesday 7^th October and were able to give some advice on their Constitution, Speakers, and ways to tackle issues and develop community spirit. They have problems very similar to those of CHRA, including Anti Social Behaviour. Their Chairman will attend one of CHRA's Meetings next year.

ADULT CARE PANEL - next meeting 10^th November - this will be an important meeting as issues to be discussed will affect everyone - eg the N Staffs Hospital becoming a Trust Foundation Hospital, and the new build complex Mill Rise, which is a joint venture with Aspire and which is creating a lot of interest for the over 50s. CHRA Chairman is trying to organise, in conjunction with the 50+ Forum, a joint meeting in May 2009 with a panel of members of the ACP; this will enable residents to understand what has been done so far in terms of adult care, and give them the opportunity to ask questions.

Cllr Susan Woodward, the current Chair of the ADC, has advised that Trading Standards Watchdogs are holding a conference at Stafford University on Monday November 24^th 10am-3pm; the conference will be filmed and will appear on the Internet for a short period. The Chairman has been invited to attend and can take anyone else who is interested.

CLOUGH HALL SCHOOL - will be running another free Computer Course in February. Anyone interested, please see Chris Brough at the December Meeting.

CHRA WEB SITE - continues to receive good reactions; Responsible Citizen is now included as a link following an enquiry from them. The website should be completed by December.

GIVE IT SUM - a request has been submitted for a grant for £500 to cover the costs of phone line rental, broadband, web hosting & room hire charges. A decision should be made by the end of the year.

STEVE MIDDLEHURST - the Chairman and Vice-Chairman met Steve last week to discuss the following: tree pruning in the wooded area behind Park Ave, car parking problems on Sunday mornings at the bottom of Clough Hall Rd, fencing and gating of wooded area which separates Kinnersley Ave and Clough Hall Rd, fly tipping and litter, and bulb planting (1000 crocus bulbs and 250gms wildflower seed are being supplied by the Borough). This was an excellent meeting and positive actions are expected on all the points raised.

CHRA LOTTERY BONUS BALL COMPETITION - this was started on 3^rd June 2006; from that date to the end of the next 12 week cycle on 6^th December 2008 £4755.10 will have been paid out in winnings and £1585.00 generated for CHRA funds. All those taking part were thanked; this money is very important in helping to cover CHRA expenses.

The Chairman then introduced PC David Woodward.

PC Woodward spoke about the following:

Changes at Kidsgrove Police which have been explained in Kidsgrove News - 2 PCSOs have become full-time PCs (one of whom will continue to work in Kidsgrove), and they will be replaced by 2 new PCSOs.
2 new part-time PCSOs have been employed to work on a fixed time basis - Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings each week.
The nuisance and disorder campaign carried out in August is to be repeated from now until Christmas - officers will be on duty from 5pm covering the area. A rapid response ASBO car will also be deployed as an extra resource.
A male started a 4 year prison sentence in June in connection with local burglaries at the beginning of this year; police will continue to target him when he is released, and additional evidence may appear to connect him to more burglaries.
A new non-emergency phone number for the police - 0300 123 44 55 - this number has been chosen by the Citizens Panel and other groups.

The Chairman thanked PC Woodward and introduced Sue Gray.

Sue explained that she works as a civilian at the Police Public Service Desk taking non-emergency calls. Her role is to take all initial details of an incident and then to ask further questions, but she reassured residents that as soon as the initial details were taken the information would go to the relevant Officers who could then begin to deal with the incident.

In response to a question she explained that it is not policy to ring back a member of the public who has made a call unless the person has requested this, however anyone afraid of identification would be phoned and told what had happened as a result of the call. (A resident who had needed to call the police recently praised their response.) Sue said that all ASBO incidents are logged in order to see if a possible hotspot is developing, and hotspot areas are regularly patrolled. If no Officers were available to take a call then it would depend on the priority of the call - a life-threatening situation would always provoke an immediate response. All calls are recorded and anyone making a call should request an incident number - these are sometimes not needed but are usually given. If someone else has reported an incident then this will already have a number, and any further information given will be added to that number. The Public Service Desk receives 600 - 1300 calls per day; all calls are logged and recorded and are date specific, and all information received is cross-referenced; any incident will stay on screen until it is resolved.

Sue left leaflets and pens for residents to take, and cards detailing the new non-emergency number.

The Chairman thanked Sue for her interesting and informative talk, then following a break for refreshments introduced John Cookson.

John gave a very interesting illustrated talk about the County Air Ambulance, which is a registered charity with no state or lottery funding and which needs to raise £5.6 million per year. The service started in 1991and 28,000 missions have been recorded since then. There are 3 Air Ambulances based at RAF Cosford in Shropshire, Strensham Services off the M5 and Tatenhill Airfield near Burton-on-Trent; they can travel at 150mph and between them they cover Birmingham, the Black Country, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Herefordshire, Worcester and Gloucester. The helicopters and the pilots are leased, and each carries two paramedics or one doctor and one paramedic; the paramedics are volunteers from the NHS. The service operates from 6am to 10pm 7 days a week, 365 days a year, and costs £1.8 million per helicopter per year - it costs £24 per minute for each helicopter to fly, and each return flight to hospital could cost up to £2,000. John concluded his talk by saying that anyone wishing to make a donation could do so by calling 01384 24 11 33, or by visiting http://www.countyairambulance.com/

The Chairman thanked John for his talk and, following the raffle, the meeting was closed.

Signed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (G Sutton, Chairman)