MINUTES 20 November 2008

Attendees: Nicola Horrell (chair), Claudia Hodds (minutes), Joan & Eddy Smith, Mary Carter, Timothy Grimdon, Zuzanna Briscoe, Mary Beer, Lisa Etherton, Eunja & Stewart Palmen, Di Marshall, Sharon Draper, Clive Blackmore (Cllr), Graham Hedley (Cllr), PCSO Maria Badder,

Apologies: Fran Markotic, Mark McLauchlan, Drew Thomas, Teresa Hibbs, Maryrose Mantle, Hilly Prendergast, Sue Gibbs, Karen Tate.

In Fran’s absence, Nicola chaired the meeting.
The minutes of last month’s meeting were approved without amendment.

December Meeting / Carol Singing
Mary Beer to organise carol singing. All interested in singing should meet at Wesley Road Club at 6pm. Stuart & Eunja to provide hymn sheets. No money to be collected, we will just tell people about NARA and invite them to our meeting at 8pm. Everyone to bring along snacks to the meeting, Fran to bring paper plates. Some mulled wine to be provided by NARA (Claudia to organise) but drinks mainly to be purchased from Wesley Rd Club. Nicola to design leaflet to let residents in NARA area know about Christmas get-together and to contact Maryrose for printing. Claudia to allocate roads for distribution. Volunteers for distribution: Sharon, Mary C., Joan, Mary B, Eunja, Lisa, Timothy, Claudia. Might be useful to hang up posters in the area, too.

Coffee Morning
Mary Carter’s suggestion from last month’s meeting was positively received. Should be a Saturday morning in January or February. Mary C. to speak to Wesley Rd Club about possibility of using one of their rooms. Alternative would possibly be to use Old Rectory – would have to speak to Teresa Hibbs.
Details to be discussed at next meeting, incl. how we would advertise the coffee morning and who does what.

NARA Skittles Evening at Wesley Road Club
Idea for March to get local residents interested in NARA and its activities. To be discussed at next meeting.

Police Report
PCSO Maria Badder said that the area has been very quiet recently, no vehicle crime. They are trying to get hold of the owner of a motorbike which is parked on the pavement in Gloucester Rd opposite West St. The number plate of the motorbike came up as a Volvo, so Maria is not sure whether she took down the correct number plate. Would any NARA member who sees the motorbike please let her know the correct reg number.
Mary C. told the meeting that Semeraro’s shop window on Newtown was smashed again but that he has given up reporting this to the police.

Recycling
According to “West Wilts matters”, the recycling centre at Canal Rd now accepts TetraPaks (juice and soup cartons etc). Please spread the word – may be worth mentioning in the next newsletter.
Sharon and Mary met with Emma Glover to address recycling and general rubbish issues in Newtown Area, trying to attract more attention to the problems the area faces. There were lots of suggestions and Emma is going to present these to higher level: e.g. bin men to take rubbish bags that are placed next to full bins, or maybe a big bin for excess household rubbish to be placed somewhere in the area to make it easier for people who have more rubbish than fits in their own bin. It was mentioned that the black box collection leaves a trail of broken glass in the area and that this is mainly due to the truck being full. GH to speak to Emma Glover about this. Suggestion to invite Emma to speak at one of our meetings in the new year again to give us an update.

Parking
Graham Hedley asked if there were any further requirements re: double yellow lines (removal or addition) for the area. He suggested removal of double yellows at the end of Park St (opposite the conservative club) so people can park right up to where the street is narrowed. Could someone who lives in Park St please photograph this and send a written request to Graham so he can forward it to the relevant authorities? Also any other requests to Graham, ideally with photos, please. Any requests have to be received very soon in order for them to be taken into account. The work will be carried out in one go as they cannot do each road separately.
Lance Allan will be talking about this subject at the Neighbourhood Partnership Meeting on Monday in the Civic Hall, which Di Marshall will attend on behalf of NARA.

Sustainable Communities Act
Di Marshall explained that this was passed by parliament to devolve more powers to local communities re: issues that affect people locally. Councils have to opt in and ours has not done this so far. Di raised this at the Neighbourhood Partnership Meeting and will see if they want to take action to try to take it further. Di will give feedback at next meeting and provide details of who we can write to push for the local council to opt in to this. To be mentioned in next NARA newsletter.

Trowbridge Discovery Day
Graham Hedley gave brief feedback, said this was well attended. He offered to email notes with more detail to NARA distribution list.

NARA Chair
Following the AGM we still needed a volunteer to fill the position as NARA secretary. Fran had passed on the message that she would be happy to take up the post as secretary, which means we would need a permanent chair. Nicola urged all attendees to think about whether they would be willing to take this up. To be discussed again at next meeting.

The meeting closed just before 9:00pm

Email for PCSOs: collegeandnewtownnpt@wiltshire.police.uk
Our Police and PCSO team are:
PC 2212 Jo Bagg
PCSO 6142 Mike Caine
PCSO 6163 Maria Badder
Telephone: 0845 408 7000

Fran Markotic is NARA Chair: 01225 710457
Email: fran.jason@btinternet.com