Draft Minutes of the Conservation meeting of 2013-07-15 at 19:30 in the Black Bull
[The last amendment was on 2013-09-16. As usual, letters in square brackets refer to standing items, and numbers new items in the corresponding Agenda]
[a] Chair: Ian Deans (ID) 
chaired the meeting.
[b] Attendance: in addition, JP, SP, LS, BS, and KM signed in to the meeting. PB was on holiday, and CT, VB, RT, and KF sent their apologies. A total of 36 people now receive emailed agendas and minutes.
Ongoing matters, or "things still to be done"
[z] Next meeting. The meeting decided to cancel the following meeting, which would have been in August, so the next meeting of the Ecclesfield Conservation and Local History Group will be on Monday September 16th at 7:30 pm. It will again be in the Black Bull.
[2] The Ecclesfield Village Archive was discussed, prior to our attendance at the Parish Council’s Archiving group meeting on 31st July. [Members can see Darren Ward’s minutes of the previous meeting and other documents by clicking on the link in their email].
[3] ID passed around a copy of the (user friendly version) of the clause in our constitution, setting out a method by which Ecclesfield Parish Council could take over the archive, should this ever become necessary for its survival. It was agreed that this should be adopted, but the clause moved into the middle of the constitution document. [This has now been done, and our amended constitution can be seen by clicking on the “Constitution of the Ecclesfield Conservation Group” link at the bottom of conservation.ecclesfieldgroups.com , as clause 13]. The meeting also agreed that we should update the Sheffield Database with our new name and other details.
[7] On Boundary Planters, ID said that we needed to talk further with JH about who owned the verges at the bottom of Church Street [JH has now confirmed the ownership].
[9] Members were given details of how to bring up any problems with Sheffield City Council before their current consultation closes on 2nd August.
[y] It was suggested that we should come to a view about possible sites, and consider whether to propose any extensions to the boundaries of Ecclesfield Conservation Area. Town End Farm, Ecclesfield Dam was mentioned. It was thought that we might arrange a walk around the area.
[y] ID reported that he had examined the boundary marker which KM had brought to our attention on Green Lane. It is carved sandstone, triangular in plan, on a rectangular plinth. The plinth is still there. It is labeled on one side “Sheffield City Council”, and on the other “Wortley RDC”. It was decided that we should suggest to Amey plc that they re-erect the sign.
[y] The possibility of illustrated talks was discussed and favorably received. [If anybody has any thoughts this, please let me know - 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. [Now viewable at... conservation.ecclesfieldgroups.com/minutes - JP]
[1] Ian Deans reported on our attendance at The Community Gardens Open Day on Sunday 14th July. JH had made the gazebo available and helped put it up. Copies of our heritage board leaflets were laid out, and a stand displaying historical photographs of Ecclesfield Park was displayed. One visitor suggested that they might be able to get access to other old photographs of Ecclesfield, since they were owned by a family member, and another expressed an interest in coming to our meetings. Angela Marsden made a count of visitors and thanked us for being there. [All the photographs displayed can be seen on 4conservation.ecclesfieldgroups.com/photographs/Jones/ - JP]
[5] MM updated us as to the state of our bank account.
[x] No submissions to Sheffield City Council on planning applications were decided upon.
[y] The meeting was told that the Sign outside the old Griffin Pub had been removed, and wondered whether the sign was protected under the planning decision that allowed its change of use. [I checked Sheffield City Council’s Planning site, and the only planning application for The Griffin that I could find was the October 2012 application for “alterations to form a dwelling house”. The decision notice resulting from this did not mention the Griffin Sign. This is in spite of the comment submitted by the Ecclesfield Conservation Group, requesting that the sign be retained, and that request having been properly included in the “summary of representations” presented to the Planning Committee. Possible reasons for this, include i) the fact that this was one of 8 requests we made, some of which did seem to be taken further; ii) neither of the two other objectors mentioned the sign; and although the old Griffin is in our Conservation Area, there are no Article 4(2) directions in force in Ecclesfield]
[y] KM suggested that the “Yorkshire Times” used to be Ecclesfield’s local paper, and run articles on the village. It might therefore have some interesting historical photographs, for instance of Ecclesfield Park. [I have not contacted them, but I found their historical records site, but there was very little material on it - JP]