To be made available on conservation.ecclesfieldgroups.com [Version dated 2018-07-24 by JP]

Agenda for the Conservation meeting of
2018-09-25 at 19:00 in “The Stocks”

C.    Chair: RT.

D.    Agenda Items



  1. Report on our attendance at the Gala.

  2. Proposal to move our account to an RBS branch in Sheffield.

  3. Any questions members might have for Dr. Ian Fairlie, at his Thursday meeting, prior to our taking baseline measurements of the background radiation in Blackburn and Whiteley brooks.

  4. Any comments members might want to make on the expected Sheffield Plan or its possible effects on the Green Belt.

X.    Any Planning Concerns. See the penultimate section.

Y.    Any questions or comments on the “Emails received”, “Information watch”, or “Issues remaining”. sections below; or any other business.

Z.     Confirmation, or change to the scheduled next meeting date, of 23rd October.

On the Agenda Items

2. RBS in Ecclesfield is closing, as is explained at https://www.thesun.co.uk/money/5040981/rbs-bank-branches-closing-job-losses-closure-list/


3. Dr Ian Fairlie is giving a talk at St. Mary’s Catholic Church, High Green on 27th October on the Toxicity of Fracking waste. If anybody who cannot attend, wishes the Conservation group to ask a particular question, then I will try and ensure that it is asked, and report the answer back to members. There is also a meeting of “Frack Free Ecclesfield and Chapeltown” on 9th October at 7:30 in Ecclesfield Library, which may discuss what Dr. Ian Fairlie says in high Green.

Unless anyone suggests that the Conservation Group needs to buy a more modern Geiger counter, we are proposing to use my old http://www.alpharubicon.com/basicnbc/kvartsdrgb90.htm. I have tested it, and I read that Geiger counters should be able to detect all types of ionising (I.e. dangerous) radiation. If we can show that there is no increase in the counts from the stream, then this should give us an assurance there is no significant radioactive contamination. Because the unit only generates about 60 clicks per minute and has no inbuilt counter, I calculate that we need to manually count to at least 400 (e.g. seven minutes counting) to be able to prove that, for instance, a 10% change in the count is the result of a real change in activity (at the usual 95% confidence level https://help.surveymonkey.com/articles/en_US/kb/How-many-respondents-do-I-need). Also, since I read that the background level can vary with weather conditions and time of day, we need an out-of-stream-count to subtract from each in-stream-count, and to double the count to 800 for each of these measurements.

As we expected, the government inspector for the Marsh Lane Inquiry, has allowed exploratory drilling to go ahead. In case in view of this, any members want to sign them, I should say that the Government’s consultations on whether shale gas exploration (but not production) should be given “permitted development rights” and whether shale gas production should be included in the “Nationally Significant Infrastructure Regime”both close on 25th October 2018.

4. I will bring two articles from the Sheffield Telegraph 13th September on the expected new Sheffield Development plan, and RT has found some more recent articles.

Although not quite in our area, I should perhaps mention that there was concern about a new planning application for land between 94 and 98 Wheel Lane, Grenoside. https://www.thestar.co.uk/our-towns-and-cities/sheffield/battle-over-house-to-be-settled-1-9364765

The items in the next few sections will not be gone through one by one, but can be discussed in any other business if any member wishes to bring them up.

Communications, e.g. on ecclesfield.conservation@gmail.com.

Information watch

Issues completed

Outstanding issues

If any members can help, or want to bring any of the following up for any other reason, they can do so in any other business.

* Our on-line archive and website need attention.
*    Designs for the pop-up banners are still in progress.
*      We have a fireproof trunk for storing archive material. Members might prefer a more generally accessible location if one can be found [As well as perhaps other things such as our Gazebo].
*      We still have plans to survey major trees within the Conservation Area.
*      Sheffield City Council’s alcohol licensing system is still not on-line. This not only makes it difficult for anybody to find out what restrictions apply to any licenses granted in the past, but we may be missing some of their new decisions, since we can only see the latest (2 week?) decisions.

New planning applications

The following planning applications and appeals were found by searching for Ward = “East Ecclesfield”, Parish = Ecclesfield Parish Council”, postcodes S35 9?? and S35 1TE, validated from 20th May to 25th June 2018. [You may be able to click on the underlined links, and then the [Documents] tab to see the drawings etc. Otherwise, just go to planningapps.sheffield.gov.uk/online-applications/, then enter the “Ref. No” for the application you are interested in.
The contents of brackets and italics are my interpretation - made after briefly scanning some of the planning documents]

Still pending



The next SCC Planning Committee meetings are on 16 October and 8 November 2018. Anybody interested may want to check the agendas as they are published at...
democracy.sheffield.gov.uk/ieListMeetings.aspx?CommitteeId=373 .

Decided

Alcohol Licensing