ALTON RURAL REGENERATION GROUP
MINUTES OF THE MEETING HELD AT THE ROYAL OAK, ALTON, ON TUESDAY 14 SEPTEMBER 2004
PRESENT: Les Sposito, John Moorhouse, Claire Head, Sally K, Josie Shepherd and Gillian Morrison. Also George and Eddie Bailey.
1. APOLOGIES were received from Dave, Alan and Linda.
2. MINUTES OF THE LAST MEETING were read, agreed and signed as correct.
3. MATTERS ARISING
Surgery: as this is moving forward with the sale of the land going through, it was agreed to take this off our agenda now.
CCTV: John is going to get an update on CCTV and Alton Towers assistance.
Web site: Claire and Gill Smallwood had delivered a number of flyers regarding the site to the businesses in Alton, during July. Unfortunately there has been very little response at this stage, although Father John has expressed an interest and one other B&B. We will move forward with this.
Gateway Project: Maintenance is still an issue of great concern. Although lots of people have put in a lot of voluntary work, it cannot go on like this indefinitely. Gill agreed to write to the Parish Council to ask for their help, but also to suggest that if a Village Tidy Group was organised, they could liaise with the Council and help with the Lengthsman’s work, if that would be helpful. The official ‘unveiling’ of the entrances is to be on 10 October at 3 pm.
4. SPORTS FACILITIES
This project, along with the play area, has lost momentum. After discussion, it was agreed that Sally and Josie would try to reconvene a meeting with those interested parties remaining to try and move forward on this.
5. CALENDARS
George and Eddie Bailey very kindly joined the meeting (at very short notice – sorry!) and brought a lot of very interesting, historical photos of the village and surrounds. The meeting spent some time choosing appropriate photos for the calendar. Les and Claire to meet with Tara Thorley of The William Dean Group to finalise the details for printing. There was discussion on price to charge for the calendar and it was agreed as there was no time to organise sponsorship this year, but as we would have funding that would help, we should charge around £5.
6. NEW PROJECTS
We had no time to discuss this.
7. ANY OTHER BUSINESS
Dave: Claire had spoken to Dave who asked her to mention that there will soon be an ‘Appraisal Review’, going through achievements and projects ongoing and yet to be started. Also there was a request for 25 small copies of our map to show others what can be achieved. It was agreed that these could be provided at just over cost.
Noticeboard: this has been driven into over the summer holidays and almost completely destroyed. The Police are looking into it – there may be some evidence on the CCTV. Replacement/restoration decisions to await until after the outcome.
Roundhouse Christmas Event: Josie and Claire to meet in October to get the ball rolling re: road closure and so on. Claire has asked the Bellringers and also Mari, although away on the actual day, is happy to get the ingredients for the mulled wine, if someone else can make it on the day. It was agreed a flyer should be produced again this year to advertise the event. It was suggested that it should also be used to advertise the SRB Group to see if anyone is interested in joining us, and the web site.
8. DATE OF NEXT MEETING: Tuesday 5th October 2004 at the Royal Oak, Alton at 7.30 pm.
