[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 2011-03-21 (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 2011-04-19 when "AGM" was deleted from the title]

Attendance

[a] Keith Fish opened the meeting, and John Ellis took the Chair from item 2 onwards.
[ ] Jim Percival jim AT ... took these minutes.

[b] 7 people attended the meeting, 4 people sent apologies (including 1 which was sent but not received in time for the meeting), and 27 people currently receive emailed agendas and minutes.

Things we are doing

[z] The next meeting of the Conservation Group will be on 2011-04-18 (Monday) at 19:30 in the Stocks.

[1] Peter Barker, as our treasurer, reminded us that details of the Chairmanship of the group (see below) which had been given to the bank when the account was taken out were now out of date. The meeting therefore agreed that Peter Barker should inform the bank of the change. John Ellis said he did not need to be a signatory of the account, and no objections were raised to KF remaining as one the signatories, or to the current requirement 2 out of 3 signatures. No other change to the banking arrangements therefore seemed to be needed.

Things we have done

[1] John Ellis was elected unopposed as our new chairman. Keith Fish had told us at the last meeting that although he wanted to continue being involved in Conservation, he wished to stand down as Chair. Maintaining this in the current meeting, he explained that he had too many commitments. On his election as our new Chair, John Ellis thanked Keith for the work he had done, and expressed the hope that he would get the same support as the members had given Keith. Introducing his Chairmanship, John suggested that we needed some new members.

[2] KF reported that he had attended the meeting of last week's Northern Community Assembly at Grenoside, and presented our traffic petition to them.  It contained more than 130 signatures. The efforts of MM in knocking on doors in Church Street, were mentioned, as were the facilities offered by St. Marys Church, and Gatty Hall in hosting copies of the petition. Otherwise, we had done little to promote the petition and the large number of signatures obtained were the result of people keenness to sign. The Northern Community assembly were going ahead with their traffic calming measures, [see link below], and had purchased four speed indicators (at a cost of £15,000 each), one of which was for Wheel Lane [Further Northern Community Events should be listed here in due course JP].
Members did report considerable improvements in the traffic on town End Road and Church Street, but this was thought to be due to vehicles taking other routes to avoid the temporary traffic lights and road diversions. However, it was a welcome indication of what having less traffic could mean. There was also a possibility that work on the Gas main between Ecclesfield and Chapeltown would require further road works perhaps extending over the rest of the year.

There was a serious debate as to whether to press further for a pedestrian crossing, or for more general traffic reduction or traffic calming measures on Church Street. ID expressed the opinion that our job was to bring the magnitude of the problem to the attention of the City Council and that it was then for the Council to decide how best to solve the problems that we revealed.  Other members tried to find a more specific course of action which we could all agree on with a view to campaigning and pressing the Council to accept. Since this meeting failed to find or agree on any such single measure, the issue was left open for members to consider and research for their next meeting. [The Council's proposals for Yew Lane and Town End Road might be relevant here JP].

Resolutions Passed

[c] Copies of the minutes of the meeting of 2011-02-21 were distributed, and approved as correct.

Also Discussed

[3] The last meeting asked Jim Percival to find out whether the J G Greaves trust accepted applications for grant from organisations that were not registered charities. Although he had not contacted the Trustees, Jim was able to tell the meeting that he had found the Trust's published list of (larger) beneficiaries, and this included at least one that was not a registered charity. An application by the Conservation Group for our history board should therefore be eligible for consideration by the Trustees. [The Trust only accepts applications from groups, not individuals, but we pass this requirement]. We were however, reminded that we did not yet have a costing for the board, so the next practicable application date would be some time in September.

[y] KF reported on the work that "Ecclesfield in Bloom" had done on improving Ladycroft Meadow. He said that they had purchased wild flower seeds, which they were about to distribute, and had currently got two benches on order. KF also said that there was an anomaly in that the lease from Sheffield City Council was still in the name of the Ecclesfield Conservation Group, which prompted some discussion as to whether this could cause significant problems. Peter Barker said that it was the Bloom Group that should have both the credit and the responsibility for Ladycroft, and this seemed to be generally agreed. He also said that he thought that as far as Sheffield City Council was concerned, the Conservation Group were still the responsible organization. To avoid this confusion, Peter Barker therefore made a formal proposal that we do whatever was necessary to move the license. Unfortunately, no one present was sufficiently familiar with the terms of the lease to say what the implications of doing this would be, so this proposal lapsed.  Peter Barker then asked that his objections to our not being decisive enough to transfer the license be minuted.

[x] The planning application for 68A Yew Lane by "Bradburys Haulage", was discussed. Roger Tordoff noted that the site was in the Ecclesfield Conservation Area and suggested that we monitor the application. There were no objections to our doing this. [I have since spoken to the Planning Officer about the meaning of their cut off date for receiving comments, and if anybody wants to propose any action by the Conservation Group on Bradbury's application, then it is important that they email me with a request to put the item on the agenda in time for me to tell the planning officer before he finalizes his report. Alternatively, interested members might want to "Submit Comments..." by clicking here. They may also like to see a photograph of the (half completed) building at http://ecclesfield.wikia.com/wiki/Conservation - but please note even the wiki is not an official or "Conservation Group" controlled site JP].
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