[These and previous minutes are available as a web page on conservation.ecclesfieldgroups.com Just click on "Minutes" for the minutes of the last meeting]

Minutes of the Conservation Group meeting of 2010-11-15 (Monday) at 19:30 in the Stocks

[Numbers and letters in square brackets refer to corresponding items in the agenda of the same date. This version of the minutes was last amended on 2010-12-02]

Attendance

[a] Keith Fish chaired the meeting.
[ ] Jim Percival jim AT ... took these minutes.
[b] 13 people attended the meeting, 3 people emailed apologies, and 27 people currently receive emailed minutes.

Things we are doing

[z] It was decided not to hold a December meeting. The next meeting of the Conservation Group will therefore be on 2011-01-17 (Monday) at 19:30 in the Stocks. This meeting will also be an AGM.
[1] We discussed the preparations for the "You Choose" event, on 16th November, including the Power Point put together by ID in support of our grant application for a heritage board for LadyCroft Meadow. KF said that he had emailed the Northern Assembly with our concerns about the difficult 18:00 hour start to the event. KF also reported that a new rule meant that each voter needed to select five projects, in order for any of their votes to count. [This application is now known to have failed. However, the heritage board may be eligible for funding under the Ecclesfield Parish Council "Small Grants Scheme", especially as we were told that the project only just missed out in the voting. If anybody wants to take this further - the form is available here, and the next meeting of the finance committee is 16th December]
[2] KF thanked everybody who gave their time to our recent traffic survey, which allowed us to plot a continuous 13 hours of traffic. JE handed out copies of what was described as a "complete report", and which contained graphs of both "East going" and "West going" traffic along Church Street. Both graphs showed two peaks, an 8-9 and a 4-6 peak. The total number of vehicles entering the junction with St. Mary's Road was over 1,300. JE suggested that we could not rely on one survey, but needed to do it again on a different day. It was therefore decided that we should repeat the exercise, and 10th December was chosen so as to get an estimate of Friday's traffic. The previous schedule was to be maintained as far as possible [In view of the terrible weather, that has developed subsequent to the meeting, we thought we make a decision as to whether to go ahead with this second survey on Tuesday 7th, and circulate the decision. If anybody wants input into this decision, or cannot, or does not want to, do their "hour"; or wants to move their slot, please email jim AT ...].

The scheme on Wheel Lane and The Wheel to encourage slower traffic was mentioned in connection with funding cuts [but is still listed on http://www.sheffield.gov.uk/roads/schemes/safety JP].
[3] We thanked Ecclesfield Parish Council for their grant towards the cost of this year's Ecclesfield Christmas tree, which will be erected in the grounds of St. Mary's Church.
[4] Our (joint) entry for the St. Mary's Church, Christmas tree festival was discussed. It was agreed that it would be decorated with small cards hung on chords, and an example card was passed round. People are needed to decorate the tree from 6pm on the 9th December, and everybody will be able to view all the trees prepared by local groups within the Church from 10th - 12th December. [If anybody has any comments or objections to our putting in a sponsorship bid of £30-£40 towards the purchase of our festival Xmas tree, please email KF. We believe that a lack of sponsorship from local businesses, means that there could be a loss made on the Christmas Tree Festival. As we do receive monies from Ecclesfield various charities and help from within the church it was felt we ought to help out.]
[ y] Continuation of the work on Ladycroft Meadow by ourselves and "in Bloom" was discussed but will probably require a mechanical digger to spread the remaining soil.
[ y] Renewal of our insurance is due again. The cost has risen slightly from £125 to £128 this year, with additional restriction in cover (we will not be covered for building walls).

Things we have done

[ y] KF Thanked everybody who attended the recent coffee morning in St. Mary's Church. The event was a great success, with Christmas decorations, Christmas cards and bric-a-brac being on sale and £467 raised.

Resolutions Passed

[c] Copies of the Minutes of the meeting of 2010-10-18 (last amended on 2010-10-25) were distributed, and accepted.
[y ] We decided to send a special Christmas card to South Yorkshire Police congratulating PC Peter Booth for his recent awards and thanking him for his continuing good work as community policeman.
[y] We discussed the offer that we had received of about a ton of undressed stone. However, we could not determine a use for it, and therefore resolved to reply declining the offer.

Notes and Information

[6] There was nothing further to report on pending planning applications, with both the application for Ecclesfield Power station and the Old Methodist still described as "Pending" on Sheffield City Council's web site.
[ ID has emailed to  say  that Marika  Puglisi (marika.puglisi@sheffield.gov.uk.) had mentioned that "the Council is starting a project recording and celebrating local buildings and other features of importance".  ID asked them to contact with us when they were ready to start the project"]
[Sheffield City Council in introducing "No Waiting" areas, and a 30 mph speed limits on Chapeltown Road/Ecclesfield Road]
[ The next meeting of Ecclesfield in Bloom is scheduled for 2011-02-01 (Tuesday) at 19:00 pm, in the lounge bar of the Stocks as indicated on www.ecclesfieldinbloom.co.uk. The "in bloom" grant application for funding to put a seat in Ladycroft Meadow was successful. Material from the application can be seen here.]
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