BWCT Minutes – Wednesday 18 April 07
Present:
Mike Harris (MH); John Horton (JH); Clive Myatt (CM); Tom Sumner (TS); Sylvia Tilford (ST); Mike Walker (MW)
In the chair:
Bruce Speed (BS)
The Chair welcomed Dennis Warwick to the meeting to report under item 6.
1. Apologies for absence
Peter Jenkins (PJ)
2. Minutes of the last meeting held on January 10th
These were accepted as a correct record and were signed.
3. Matters arising not covered elsewhere on the agenda
None
4. Correspondence
BS reported
· Copies of Briefing Bradford, the newsletter of the CVSs in the district, for November, February and March.
· Invitation to attend the Community Heroes Awards. BS attended to collect the award for our nominee, Judith Hird, at the event on 29th April.
· Tereli. A receipt for our donation of £1000, confirming that the money is in an account that will go directly to support the construction of three classrooms.
· Tereli. BS sent a letter of greetings to the Chief and people of Tereli with Mary Wood when she visited in January, and we have had a letter from him thanking us for our help.
· Request for information via a questionnaire from the Shipley & Frizinghall Healthy Living Project. BS referred the request to the Over 50s Group and Good Neighbours.
· Invitation to a Rural Community Buildings event (22nd March), about funding, management committees and marketing.
· Invitation to Enterprise Showcase event on 18th April from Bingley Voluntary Action.
· Ilkley and District CVS newsletter, including invitation to the Community Showcase on 1st May.
· A request from Burley Oaks Primary School that BWCT should insure the trailer that is occasionally used, mainly at Christmas, has been resolved. The school will continue to insure it, and any damage will be paid for by whoever uses it.
· A letter from Burley Cricket Club thanking BWCT for its support for the 'Buy a Brick' project and an invitation to attend the function to open the extension on Saturday, April 21st. As members present were not free to attend BS will send apologies.
· Receipt of a copy of a letter and some attached papers sent by John Gundry to Nigel Clayton inviting his views, in the light of changes in the law, on making a third application for village green status for Burley House Field. Ultimately it is now the decision of the Parish Council to decide whether to make such an application. The views of Nigel Clayton will help to inform this decision. ST informed the meeting that Burley House Field would be an item on the agenda of the June parish council meeting.
The window of opportunity to make a third bid is open until August 2008.
5. Treasurer's report
MH provided a copy of the accounts (attached) and drew attention to the fact that expenditure has exceeded income.
This resulted mainly from:
i. Costs associated with the Scalebor pavilion; electricity costs for the pavilion had been higher than expected. Estimated bills had been received for the past 3 years and the full costs are only now emerging. There is not thought to have been misuse of electricity. In addition to the electricity costs there are insurance associated with building. A £200 payment had also been made for emptying the septic tank (see item 7).
After 3 years experience of operating this facility, running costs have exceeded rental income. MH has written to football and cricket clubs, proposing an increase to £400 per annum from 2008, with a review in 2009 based on costs experience. BWCT Committee members will recall that, against MH's guidance, we agreed the current low rental figure to help the new junior sections to get established. Their membership has grown substantially since then.
ii. Roundhouse electricity costs for the winter quarter. This was also an estimated account but it is not thought that real costs differ significantly.
iii.Christmas lights: there had been a mix of capital and maintenance/ running costs. Thanks were recorded to Burley Parish Council for the £2000 donation. The capital costs can be written off over 3 years at £970.06 per annum. Collections at the switch on event had been lower this year and less had been received from the Chamber of Trade. Collection activities will need to be improved this year. If the full costs were taken into account for this year expenditure exceeded income. MH proposed that the maximum spend should be no more than £3000 in 2007 and that no new features should be acquired. This was agreed. A few reservations were expressed at the level of expenditure proposed when income to meet it was, as yet, uncertain.
BS reported that he had attended the Chamber of Trade meeting on 15th March and suggested that both parties need to meet in October to discuss costs and commitments so that we do not end up with a loss similar to 2006. This would be organized.
MH reported that a request had been received from Peter Riley from the Burley Wildlife Group for a contribution towards the costs of a new mower. Some money had already been received from the Community Chest. It was proposed and agreed that £150 should be donated.
It was noted that the £100 from the Parish Council towards the website costs should also be shown on the accounts.
MH made the proposal to increase the annual membership of BWCT from £4 to £5 for the year 2007/08. This was agreed. It was noted that 50p was raised for each £1 in subscriptions and these donations were much appreciated. It was agreed that it was necessary to advertise membership of the Trust as widely as possible in order to increase from the current 224 members. The membership fees were a main source of funds to support BWCT activities.
6. Website Report
DW reported that the website had been up and running for 7 years. This was largely due to the efforts of Malcolm Fisher, ably supported by the website committee of which DW was currently the chair. Currently 5 members of the BWCT Committee are on the website committee and Jo Griffiths represents Burley Parish Council. Other interested parties have also been invited to join the Committee.
There had been two recent major changes to the website:
i. There had been the need to check the accessibility of the website and respond accordingly. Visual accessibility is a key issue and modifications have been made;
ii. the decision of the newly formed Burley Parish Council to use the website as its official channel. A separate area has been created which can be accessed directly from the top of the home page. Information on the website is updated regularly. For example, efforts are made to keep the Handbook, last updated in the paper format in 2005, up to date. There are concerns that the village does not always provide up to date information or enter events on the village diary. Malcolm Fisher wishes to put a new tracking device on the website to monitor the level of use. There were 27,000 hits last year calculated on an individual page basis. The average of individual hits for the last year was 607 per month. The target when the site was set up was 1000 per month and this wasn't reached until this year, although not maintained on a regular basis. The website receives a regular number of inquiries especially in relation to history of the village and family history. A number of people would like to see greater use of photos on the website without prejudicing accessibility. DW was thanked for his report.
7. Scalebor Sports facility
BS reported that:
· The new safety matting on the decking has been well received by members.
· The pine tree planted at the request of BMDC Trees Section has been stolen. It has not been replaced but will be if a free tree of the same species can be acquired.
· The septic tank has been emptied at a cost of £200. The contractor pointed out that it has been installed incorrectly - the outlet higher than the inlet - so that the drains back up to the pavilion and the soak-away is ineffective. BS has contacted David Wilson Homes to see if this can be rectified; reply is awaited.
· Following a meeting with representatives of users, it was agreed that BWCT should liaise with The Green Belt Company concerning the general condition of the pitches, and the very bad drainage near the pavilion and entrance, to see if improvements can be made.
8. Pond in Cornmill Lane
TS has been given plans and asked to liaise with Steve Carruthers regarding the demarcation line.
9. The Round House
· The necessary documents to obtain a subsidised annual rental of £50 (as against £500) have been completed and sent via our solicitor. A reply is awaited. TS suggested that BWCT should offer to pay 10 years lease as a lump sum in return for BMDC agreeing to give the building to the community. This was agreed and BS will follow up this matter.
· Although a replacement to operate the coffee rota has taken over from Judith Hird, the arrangement is under trial. Thanks were recorded for the years of service provided by Judith Hird. Evening bookings have been taken on temporarily by MH. Numbers using the facility for coffee, following the closure of adult education at the Grange, are so few as to question whether this is viable. Use will be noted following the opening of the St Mary's Centre.
· The partial collapse of one pillar may have been caused by recent high winds. TS has, sealed the damage against rain, and has been asked to press the builders to do the repair.
10. Pudding Tree Garden
The new owners have been in correspondence via our solicitor, offering only a 5 year lease with conditions. BS has informed them that we will reply after the Trustees have considered the matter on 18th April. The owners have also been approached by the operators of the Malt Shovel. A sub-group of BS, MH, CM, TS, JG and PJ met to discuss how we should proceed. The sub-group's recommendation was provided to all members. It was agreed that BS would write to the owners via our solicitor, James Bloomer, expressing BWCT interest in a lease at a peppercorn rent but not in accordance with all conditions stated by the owners as these could not realistically be met.
11. Any other business
· BWCT Coffee Morning on 21st April; Clive Myatt and John Sparshatt in attendance. DW provided a list of coffee morning dates for the notice boards. ST will distribute.
· The future of coffee mornings after the opening of the new St Mary's Centre was raised. MH has written to Paul Evans requesting information on the formal arrangements. The opening day for the Centre is May 20th.
· Duck Race: this will take place on Sunday June 17th. TS will circulate tickets for sale to Committee members. CM raised problems with road crossing because of the height of vegetation on the roundabout. It was agreed that the current cutting schedule should be maintained. Three, rather than two people should be available to help residents to cross safely.
· The BCC AGM will take place at the Neighbourhood Forum on June 21st and notice will be given in the next Burley Parish Council newsletter. As the Burley House Field issue was not yet finally resolved the BCC needed to continue in the form agreed at the last AGM for a further year.
· Dennis and Margaret Warwick have been asked to do a 'stunt' on walking in the village on May 20th. They will provide a history walk through the village and DW requested any any copies available of the history trail booklet.
· Village clean-up. BWCT will provide support to the clean up on Friday evening of May 11th and Saturday morning of May 12th. Burley Parish Council has invited other organisations to join in and any interested residents would also be most welcome to join in.
· TS reported that one of the trees on the village green was in a poor state and a donation had been received to replace it. Trees on the green are now a responsibility of the Parish Council.
12. Dates and frequency of future meetings
It was agreed that the Committee should meet at 2-monthly rather than 3-monthly intervals with the next meeting to take place on Wednesday June 13th at 7.30 in the Roundhouse.
The meeting ended at 9.0pm
Sylvia Tilford, Hon Secretary