Minutes of September 2008
MINUTES ... October 2007CLOUGH HALL RESIDENTS ASSOCIATION
MINUTES OF MEETING HELD ON TUESDAY 2 OCTOBER 2007
at BUTT LANE COMMUNITY CENTRE at 6:30pm.
PRESENT :-
COMMITTEE :- G Sutton, C Brammer, T Dale, B Collis, J Gallacher, C Gallacher, M Moore,
50+FORUM :- M Reynolds-Chairman, B Stoddart-Vice Chair, PJ Cotton, Margaret Coley,
C Hodgson.
GUEST SPEAKER :- Charlotte Atkins – Staffordshire Moorlands MP
PORTHILL RESIDENTS ASSOCIATION :- M Wilcox, R Wilcox
TALKE PITS RESIDENTS ASSOCIATION :- Tina Evans – Secretary
COUNCILLORS:- Silvia Burgess
RESIDENTS :- 45
TOTAL ATTENDANCE :- 62
Apologies :- Clr J Taylor, Rev Paul Howard, Andy Boyes-Planning for Real, Paul & Sue Fisher, Catherine Fox, Mr & Mrs C Brough, A Westwedge, M J Leese. C Poole.
The Chairman opened the meeting and welcomed everyone, but especially Charlotte Atkins and the Newcastle–under–Lyme 50+ Forum.
Planning for Real update – 21 consultation meetings have now been completed with 3000 flags (4,089 items) placed on the 3 models which cover Talke, Talke Pits and Butt Lane. The training for the next stage (the prioritisation stage) is now complete and the next meeting is to be held tomorrow, 3rd October. The Steering Committee would like this stage to be completed by the end of November, and interested residents are invited to participate.
There is to be a practice session on Monday 15th October at Springhead School,Talke, when each member of the Steering Committee has been invited to bring a friend along.
Citizenship training is now underway at Clough Hall School, and 80 – 100 children will be involved.
Issues raised at the last meeting -
• vehicles for sale parked at the end of Boathorse Road – the police are aware of this and it should be a short-term concern
• antisocial behaviour in the area of Clough Hall lake – alcohol has been confiscated by the police; should there be further problems residents are asked to contact the police and to obtain an incident number
• conifers dumped in the woods behind Kinnersley Ave – no positive news yet.
Quiz night – 3 tickets (each ticket for a team of 4) are left at £8 per ticket. Anyone interested please contact Graham Sutton on 07789958262.
Christmas dinner – to be held at the Clough Hall, but there is no definite date or menu as yet.
Christmas carols – no details yet.
Neighbourhood Watch Conference is to be held on Saturday 20th October at Staffs University; Graham is to attend with Tina Evans.
Talke Pits Residents’ Association is to hold a Beer Festival to raise funds for their Residents’ Group on 11th,12th,13th October at Talke Pits Village Hall. A wide selection of real ales will be on offer for the community to purchase and drink.
1940s Dance Night to be held at Kidsgrove Town Hall on Nov 10th; profits will go to Douglas Macmillan.
Graham then handed over to Mike Reynolds, 50+ Forum, who chaired the rest of the meeting.Mike thanked the ladies for the buffet, and thanked Charlotte for attending and for her hard work in the constituency. He then invited her to speak.
Charlotte spoke about 3 issues which particularly concern her:
1. The Care Homes Fight – the Changing Lives government document does not mean that county councils have to close down all care homes, and everyone should get the care they need, whether at home or in a home. Individual consultations are to take place shortly, and she stressed that everyone must feed back any concerns to their MP. This is a key issue, and it is important that the County Council should have policies which are relevant and appropriate to the local area, and that it should offer the full range of services which people need.
2. Policing – she has spoken to local PCs and PCSOs about the concerns of local people, and there are now neighbourhood policing teams to pick up on issues quickly. The whole community needs to be involved in order to crack down on antisocial behaviour, and PCSOs should have a wider community role. The PCSOs are a response to the public’s concern that there are not enough police on the beat; funding for them should come from a wide range of organisations, not just the police, to reflect their community role. The Chief Constable decides how many PCSOs are needed in an area, and their usefulness has now been proved. The young are, in fact, more at risk of crime than the elderly.
3. Health – Charlotte is on the Select Committee for Health and has fought to keep local Primary Care Trusts. The NHS reorganisation has meant that care has been taken from the hospitals and delivered at GP surgeries or in community hospitals, and the PCT will decide if a treatment is to be funded. Electronic patient records mean less paperwork, more efficiency and closer links between the GP and the hospital, which in turn means more individualised care for the patient. Waiting lists are no longer an issue; patients should have to wait no more than 18 weeks after first consulting their GP for a hospital procedure to take place.
Charlotte then invited questions from the audience:
Q. Why is the House of Commons excluded from the Freedom of Information Act?
A. The House of Commons is not excluded.
Q. Why are the opening hours of GPs surgeries limited? People who work need extended opening hours.
A. Primary Care Trusts have little influence over this; the government thinks that GPs should be more socially responsible. We need proper out of hours cover which is properly funded. Having to ring at 8am for an appointment is also a problem.
Q. Has the government thought about making it easier for people to have elderly parents living with them by perhaps giving grants for extensions or loft conversions?
A. We do need more community care, as on the continent where there are more extended families.
Q. (With reference to a local case.)What constitutes nursing care rather than residential care? Who is entitled to nursing care?
A. Criteria is based on an assessment of the individual – will their condition be improved by nursing care?
Q. Should prisoners be released after serving only half of their sentence?
A. Mandatory sentences are a difficult issue – they don’t allow for extenuating circumstances. We need other ways of dealing with offenders, not just prisons.
Q. Why do PCSOs in Staffordshire have more limited powers than those in other areas? There are not enough police in the UK to match the increase in population; numbers should be doubled and paid for by central government.
A. At the end of this year it will be a common requirement for all PCSOs to have the same powers and responsibilities. There has been a significant increase in police numbers, and other agencies must be involved in eg antisocial behaviour.
Comment from floor – offenders should recompense victims more.
A. Community orders can be very effective.
Q. Under-age drinking is a problem; when drink is confiscated in an alcohol-free zone it simply moves the problem elsewhere. Why can’t the whole country become an alcohol-free zone? And what is the government doing about the litter problem? It is a major issue.
A. Under-age drinking is illegal.
What should the government do about litter – up to county councils.
(Following a discussion involving the audience Mike Reynolds said that litter is a huge problem and a lead from government would be welcomed.)
Q. The need to increase the numbers of police and social workers is necessitated by the freedom of alcohol – this government and previous governments are to blame for the problem; the brewing industry has too much influence on government policy. Shouldn’t there be more pubs and fewer off licences?
A. Publicans can themselves be a problem; local licensing committees are important because they can deal with these publicans and they ensure that the licensing is appropriate to the area. The licence is given to the publican, not the building. There is to be a review of 24 hour drinking.
Q. Fly posting is a problem – can the council prosecute those who are advertised on the poster?
A. Fly posting is illegal.
Q. Local industries have been lost so youngsters have no jobs; they suffer loss of dignity and have nothing to aim for and this needs to be changed. Why can’t we manufacture more rather than sending work to China?
A. Import controls could be used, but we are a trading nation and we would also face import controls from other countries. We have an open economy.
Following the question and answer session the Chairman (Mike Reynolds) thanked the audience for their questions and Charlotte for her responses. He presented her with flowers and invited her to draw the raffle. The residents and the invited guests then enjoyed the buffet at the end of a most informative and interesting evening.
Signed G Sutton (Chairman) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
October 2007