Minutes of the Conservation meeting of
2014-05-27 at 19:00 in “The Stocks”

[As accepted at the meeting of 2014-06-24]

[As usual, letters refer to standing items, and numbers new items, in the agenda of the same date, which can be seen at conservation.ecclesfieldgroups.com/minutes. ]

A. Chair: Ian Deans (ID) chaired this meeting.

B. Attendance: KM, BS, LS, DM, ID, JP, SP. Apologies were received from CT, MM, KF, and RT.

C. Minutes

The minutes of the last meeting were approved for placing on the web site.

Matters needing action

Z. Date of the next meeting

The next meeting will be on June 24^th (fourth Tuesday), at 7 o'clock in the Stocks.

1. Insurance

ID: said that we need to think about all risks, and added that he had identified Tenyson as perhaps the best company to insure us. JP thanked ID for emailing him and said that he had obtained a quote from Tenyson of £111.30 for public liability, libel and slander insurance. JP passed around a quotation sheet which priced the various options which Tenyson offered, and it was decided to accept Tenyson’s quote.

2. Planters

ID said that he had spoken to Dennis from the Cattery, adjacent to the site of the Chapeltown Road/Church Lane planter, and he had asked if we can finance 10 plants at £1.99. It was agreed that ID would ask MM for a cheque to cover this.

3. Archiving

JP gave a report on the meeting of the Archiving Group, saying that Ecclesfield Parish Council had decided to appoint a project coordinator. He said that the appointment would be made by an appointments committee consisting of two Parish Councillors and two representatives from the Archiving Group’s member organisations.

JP explained that before the Archive meeting, he had established that there was no chance that the Parish Council would take up the offer of help we had received from the authors of the “Britain from Above” web site, and instead the project would “rent” software and hosting services from Townsweb. While Townsweb is a high quality archiving specialist, this does have certain consequences for the Conservation Group. One of these is that the web site will only remain online while the subscription (which might be £650 a year) is paid.

4. Joint Survey

JP Said that he had received letters of support from Ecclesfield in Bloom, Revitalising Ecclesfield Park and Pavilion Group, Ecclesfield Street Dusters, and the Friends of Ecclesfield Park. JP calculated that the £1000 grant would be enough for 3,000 freepost envelopes and questionnaires, and perhaps 800 replies. Each group is expecting to get a portion of the form, and at least two of them are planning to ask more than one question. Provided that the grant goes through, we could use it for several purposes.

JP suggested that one of these would be to help in our participation in the Archiving project. Not only could it be used to uncover any historical information, but also perhaps to solve a couple of problems created by the Council’s selection of Townsweb. The first of these is that the heritage lottery funding is meant to be spent within the specified two year project which could create a problem when the project ends. The solution to this might be to use the Joint Survey to ask people to sponsor the archive by paying a regular amount. The second problem is the greater remoteness of a Parish Council controlled Townsweb hosted archive. The solution to this might be the establishment of a physical archive alongside the digital one. Members commented that Bradfield Parish and some of the other historical groups in the area already had such archives, and the suggestion was favourably received by the meeting.

ID agreed to write to David Morton telling him of our enthusiasm for the project, and how we were hoping to use the Joint Survey to contribute to it.

5. M1 J35 Motorway Service Station

ID said that our objection to the M1 J35 Motorway Service Station proposals had been emailed to Kate Mansell as area planning officer, as our formal objection. There followed a discussion at which it was clear that members were if anything even more opposed to the development than at previous meetings.

6. Gala

JP said that he had confirmed with PB that the Gazebo would be available. There were also other groups interested in a joint presence, but not got any further with it. The meeting was generally in favour of splitting the cost if this could be arranged.

7. Pinks

MM mentioned that Pinks Estate Agent was taking an interest in the old Butcher’s shop, and thinking of moving from the Common. There was some concern about such a brightly coloured shop moving into the Ecclesfield Conservation Area, but also some support for a business willing to move into and preserve the building.

8. Grenoside Reading Room

ID said that Councillor Alan Hooper had invited us to visit the Grenoside Reading Room.

X. Planning

No planning applications caused problems, but there was a rumour of changes a Morrison’s Supermarket. JP said that he had heard this and rung the Council planning department who said that they were not in discussion with Morrisons on any changes [I’m just guessing, but it might have been the Police Training School, which I think is up for sale – JP]