Minutes of March 2009
CLOUGH HALL RESIDENTS' ASSOCIATION
MINUTES OF MEETING HELD ON TUESDAY 24th MARCH 2009 AT HOLLINWOOD SHELTERED HOUSING at 7.30pm
PRESENT :-
COMMITTEE: - G Sutton, B Collis, J Gallacher, M Moore, C Brough, T Dale, C Gallacher.
M Martin, D Martin.
GUEST SPEAKERS: - Police:- D I S. Maxfield, Dave Woodward, North Staffs Community Rail Partnership:-Fay Lambert.
GUESTS :- Cllr S Burgess, Cllr J Evans, Mr R Burns, Mrs T Evans.
RESIDENTS: - 22
TOTAL ATTENDANCE: - 38
APOLOGIES: - C Brammer, Tony Mottram, Helen Mottram, Cllr Dennis Richards.
Chairman opened the meeting and thanked all members for joining tonight's meeting, expressing particular thanks to our guest speakers, Fay Lambert-North Staffs Rail Partnership and the Police-DI St Maxfield and PC Dave Woodward.
Chairman then covered the following points:-
- Agenda: Introduction- G Sutton 7.30pm/7.40pm
Fay Lambert-North Staffs Rail Partnership 7.40pm/8.10pm
Murder Most Foul - DI Maxfield & PC D Woodward 8.10pm/8.30pm
Refreshments - & Raffle Draw 8.30pm/8.50pm
Continuation of Police Presentation 8.50pm/9.40pm
Close Meeting 9.40pm
- Chairman passed on thanks to the following :-
Members for help distributing leaflets.
Members for supporting our Lottery Bonus Ball competition.
Tina Evans for agreeing to do the Minutes for tonight's Meeting.
- Clough Hall School
The next film show will be held at the School on the 28th April starting at 1.45 pm, film will be "BRASSED OF", and Entrance and Refreshments will be free. Please telephone the School-783281, between the 16th &20th April to book your place.
- CHRA Committee
Chairman welcomed Mr. Dave Martin who recently joined our Committee. We now have a Committee of 10, a well balanced group all with differing skills who together are now a formidable group; it is a pleasure to work with them.
- Grants.
Chairman advised that CHRA have been successful in securing a grant of £277.50 from Staffordshire Community Foundation "Grassroots". This is a restricted Grant for Web Maintenance and next years Insurance costs. This grant is very welcome in these difficult times.
- Quiz Night.
We are in the process of organising a Charity Quiz night at Kidsgrove Cricket Club on Wednesday the 22nd July; details will be available at our next meeting on the 28th April.
At this point Chairman introduced our first speaker Faye Lambert.
- Faye Lambert - North Staffs Community Rail Partnership.
Faye provided a very interesting and informative talk on the Rail system since privatisation in the 1990's, and informed us how input from the Partnership has helped to improve travel facilities and forged strong links with local communities.
The talk featured on the Crewe to Derby line via Stoke on Trent and of course this involves Kidsgrove Station, the Rail franchise for this line changed in November 2007 from Central Trains to East Midlands Trains who are proving to be extremely supportive of community rail and are a proactive member of the North Staffs Rail Partnership. Clr Silvia Burgess together with other Clrs and some CHRA members are now involved with looking after the Garden at the Station. Local Schools are showing great interest in the Partnership, Maryhill School pupils have created Murals for the waiting room at Kidsgrove Station and these have been much enjoyed by passengers. Copies of the Partnerships latest Progress Report were left for members.
A short question and answer session then followed:-
Q. since the Partnership got involved with Kidsgrove Station, and, the change of franchise, has there been an increase in Passengers.
A. Yes
Q. are there any plans in place for the footbridge?
A. the cost is a major factor here, over £1 million pounds would be required to carry out this project; the more the station is used the more Network Rail will need to look at this.
Q. School Participation, is the Rail Partnership looking at specific ages for volunteer children.
A. No specific age, but it must be clearly understood that there are strict Health and Safety guidelines to adhere to. Maryhill School have participated a great deal, and there is current interest from St Saviours and Reginald Mitchell,
Q. The high cost of train fares could be making Rail travel inaccessible for some people.
A. Advance purchase of tickets can reduce the ticket cost considerably.
Q. The Waiting Room at Kidsgrove Station closes at 12.30 because of Anti Social Behavior.
A. an Anti Vandal Shelter is planned for Kidsgrove, no time scale given.
Chairman thanked Faye for her excellent, enjoyable and informative presentation.
Chairman then introduced DI S Maxfield and PC D Woodward to provide a presentation entitled "Murder Most Foul"
DI Maxfield introduced himself to the Group and explained that he was based at a centrally based unit covering the County and was joining us tonight to explain the relationship between the Major Incident Unit, local Neighbourhood Policing represented tonight by PC D Woodward, and, the general public.
The Major Incident Unit deals with for example, Homicide, Terrorism, Product Contamination, Critical/Serious Incidents, IPCC enquiries and reviews.
Statistics show there are 8 murders a year in Staffordshire and in most cases the victim knew the killer.
In the 1970s and 1980s the Police used a manual card system to record data, e.g. person, vehicle data, address Etc. Each force operated their own separate card system, which made sharing data very difficult. A review was carried out following the "Jack the Ripper case" which resulted in all forces now operate the H.O.L.M.E.S. (large major enquiry computer system). All forces now have access to all the same data.
DI Maxfield then talked through step by step the procedures used from the start of an enquiry through to taking the case to court.
A senior investigating officer is appointed who will form a link with the crime scene manager to ensure that the Scene of Crime is preserved and a forensic strategy is put into place.
Fast track options are used covering: - intelligence, victim enquiries, identification, lifestyle, associations, and behaviour patterns.
Scene forensics: - Video/photographs took of the Scene and victim, DNA opportunities e.g. taken from the victim/ weapon, fingerprints, clothing fibres, blood pattern analysis, foot marks etc.
Evidence to present to Jury: - Any links of the offender to the scene, victim to scene, offender to other offenders, offender to the crime.
Post Mortems, There are two kinds of post mortem, standard post mortem and home office post mortem. These are required to establish who died, where, why and how. Home Office murder investigation post mortems also take forensic samples, look for defensive wounds and carry out external examination.
Community Impact - the following are used to appeal for information, Media coverage, witness appeals, updates and reassurance are given to the community.
Neighbourhood and Communities - intelligence enquiries are carried out to establish links with the victim, witness appeals are made and real time updates "fact not fiction" is made available.
Following arrest, suspect can be held in custody for up to 36hrs.
Suspect will be assessed by a Doctor, will be constantly monitored in a cell, forensic samples taken, suspect will be photographed and interviewed. Disposal decision will be taken (suspect will be charged or released). A further detention period of 96 days can be applied for through a Magistrates Court.
At this point examples of five cases which have taken place in the Kidsgrove area since 1975 were given.
During the course of the presentation, members did ask several questions which were answered fully by the Police, questions covered subjects such as DNA for minor crimes, does go onto a central data base, also question asked about Smartwater.
At this point Chairman thanked the DI S Maxfield and PC D Woodward for an excellent presentation and then closed the Meeting.
Graham Sutton ) Chair - Clough Hall Residents Association