Draft Minutes of the Conservation meeting of 2013-06-17 at 19:30 in the Black Bull
[The last amendment to these V3 minutes was on 2013-06-28.
As usual, numbers (and letters) in square brackets refer to new, (and standing) items in the corresponding Agenda]
[a]
Chair:
Ian Deans (ID) 
chaired the meeting.
[b] Attendance: Councillors Vic and John Bowden, and Mr. Darren Ward of Ecclesfield Parish Council attended this meeting. Also attending was Mr Colin Taylor (CT) - Chair of the East-Ecclesfield Liberal-Democrats]. Mel & Joan Jones emailed to say that their deadline for their new book “In & Around Rotherham Through Time” was tomorrow, and PB also sent apologies. A total of 36 people now receive emailed agendas and minutes.
Ongoing matters, or "things still to be done"
[z] Next meeting. The next meeting of the Ecclesfield Conservation and Local History Group will be on Monday July 15th at 7:30 pm. It will again be in the Black Bull.
[1] ID introduced Mr. Darren Ward, who was working as Community Development Officer for High Green for the Northern Assembly, but is now working on several projects for the Parish Council. One of these projects includes helping Local History Groups such as ourselves to develop their archives and make them more widely available.
[2] JP reported that
Mathew Chambers had set up a server for the history groups. All we were
waiting for was a password. We should then be able to backup our archive and
protect it against being lost due to computer failure etc. [Note: Since
Mathew has installed Wordpress on this server, we are looking for a plug-in or
other software that will allow visitors to select and zoom in to our high
resolution photographs. If anybody knows of somebody who might be able to help,
please pass on my email address 
and suggest they
get into contact.]
[3] Darren Ward said that he could now see how we operated. All the history groups he had visited of the past 2 or 3 months were very different. There was no blueprint. The Chapeltown and High Green Archive has a lot of material, but other history groups have no archives. Some groups have their own web sites; others have no on-line presence. The council wanted to work with all the groups in the area to provide the facilities needed.
The next stage might be to decide on what sort of history to collect. Ian and Jim had said that we were interested in collecting oral history, and additional resources might be available to facilitate that. When for instance did history start? It certainly did not start with the camera. We are looking at ways we can develop more people interested in capturing the history of their area - people’s stories for example. History needs collecting and indexing. It is hidden in attics and family albums, and people’s recollections.
ID replied that as far as we were concerned, there was no start or finish point.
JB said that a lot of material is held by the groups, some of which is in boxes in a spare room, and vulnerable to fire. It was not for the Parish Council to say what is to happen to this, but the Council is offering a “safe haven”.
JH suggested that the problem was to get the information. There is a need for advertising, open days, Launch event, or annual promotions, E.g. at the Gala in the Park.
RT suggested open interviews to gather more amorphous material.
[4]
ID recommended the constitution he had updated for us. JP suggested
adding a clause 15, detailing how the Ecclesfield Village Archive could be
preserved should our group fall on “hard times”, and a copy of the modified
constitution with that clause (in red) was handed round for approval. JP
explained that the intention of the clause was to prevent the copyright permissions
associated with our Ecclesfield Village Archive ever being lost, by defining a
procedure whereby they could be transferred to the Parish Council. As such it
was similar to the clause which our constitution had always contained which
allowed any funds remaining on our dissolution to revert to the Council. In the
case of copyrights however, any transfer has to be in writing. The clause
therefore empowers nominated people (E.g. the Chair, or officers), and failing
them any individual member, to sign over the copyright. They can only do this
however, in restricted circumstances, and in accordance with a strict procedure
laid out in the clause. The meeting approved the intention of the clause, but
ID suggested that as written, the clause might be procedural rather than
constitutional and offered to look at it again to see how it should appear in
the constitution. [Members can see the new clause by going to the members
area and clicking on the “changes to constitution” folder, and then “IDv1
JPv1.doc”. Email any comments or suggestions please to ].
[5] MM updated us as to the state of our bank account, saying that it contained £461. She said that the old bank account was to be closed, and a new one opened in our new name [i.e. with “and Local History” in it]. A copy of the existing constitution was therefore signed by ID, RT, and MM, to give to the bank, in order to enable a new account to be opened in the new name.
[6] The Community Gardens Open Day on 14th July was discussed. ID would be there and JP offered to print out some pictures to display.[We already have some, pictures in our archive, but if anybody has any more historic pictures of the park, and they are prepared to let me scan and display them, then please let me know - JP]
[7]MM reported that St Mary's Trust had offered to pay for one planter. KF reported that Morningside Cattery had offered to sponsor a planter to be sited near their premises. JH kindly volunteered to see if he could find out who owned the land on the corner of Chapeltown Road / Church Street. If this sponsorship was successful, we may be able to install a total of two additional planters. KF estimated that the unit cost of supply would be £179 + carriage
[10] The Players Lounge planning application is still pending, so any member wishing to comment further can do so using the links on our web site.
In view of the difficulty ourselves and others had in obtaining information on licensing decisions, and the fact that the licensing conditions attached to the various licensed premises in Ecclesfield (and the rest of Sheffield) were not online, it was decided to give Sheffield City Council a list of the premises we were interested in and ask for details of the conditions applicable to those premises.[ request now emailed - JP]
[y] The meeting decided to contribute to St. Marys Church Christmas Tree Festival in December. This will be a joint tree with Bloom and Street Dusters (ex Scrubbers) if they wish to participate.
[y] VB said that the next Ecclesfield Community Safety Meeting was on Tuesday 23rd July, at 2 o’clock in the Community Room at Unity Gardens [off Reneville Crescent if anyone wants to go].
[y] VB also raised the question as to whether there should be an “Ecclesfield Forum”, at which the various Groups in the Village could meet and discuss things of mutual concern [This has been discussed at previous Community Safety Meetings, so any members interested in such a forum, might want to go along and give their views – JP].
Completed matters or "things we have now done"
[c] Minutes and Matters arising therefrom: The minutes of the previous meeting were accepted for publication. [A copy of these can now be found at... conservation.ecclesfieldgroups.com/minutes - JP]
[7] It was suggested that addition of a third entrance to the industrial park on Nether Lane would constitute a traffic hazard, and unanimously decided to register an objection. [Now at http://publicaccess.sheffield.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=neighbourComments&keyVal=MLHVR4NYFY000 ]
[8] ID reminded us that the northern assemblies were being replaced by ward based structures with spending reduced from 2,600k to £580k (i.e. representing £2 million of the £50 million total budget cut). Of this, nearly half goes on staffing, leaving £300k for discretionary grants. East Ecclesfield’s allocation from this is £8,796. [I have looked on the Council web site, but can’t see the phase 2 consultation that I thought might have followed phase 1, so any comments anybody has on these cuts would have to go direct to our City Councillors - JP]
[9] ID said he had looked at the proposed development sites in the City Policies and Sites document, and did not notice anything unexpected. So he did not see the need for us to comment at this stage. [Members can comment on any of the listed sites, which are …
Butterthwaite Lane
Green Lane
Johnson Lane
Loicher Lane
Loicher Lane, next to Arthur Lee Works
Smithy Wood
Station Road
Yarra industrial Estate]
Members can also see the map of green belt areas etc, and Comment on that as well if they wish].