Minutes of the Meeting 7th April 2021 Abbey Park Community Association Committee (via Zoom)

Present:-Simon Middlecote (Chair) , Ruth Kerry, Sue Andrew, Lesley Morris, Chris Holmes, Councillor Penny Gowland, Catherine Bailey. Apologies: Rani Joshi, County Councillor Liz Plant

MINUTES OF LAST MEETING
The minutes of the last meetings of the Association held on 20th January and 4th February 2021 were noted.

BANK ACCOUNT AND FINANCE
The current bank balance is £1600.23 which included some funds for trees.

CONSTITUTION OF THE COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION
Now that we had a draft constitution agreed there was a need to publicise this so that it could be agreed at the next in-person meeting.
It was agreed that Ruth would post a link from the Facebook page to the website and Sue would put a copy on the noticeboard.

SAFEGUARDING AND DBS CHECKS
It was agreed:-
that Ruth, Lesley and Chris would prepare a draft safeguarding and photo policy for consideration at the next meeting..
That Sue would find out if DBS checks were needed to take on D of E Award students in the gardening work.

WEST BRIDGFORD NEIGHBOURHOOD PLAN
A discussion document was considered about proposals to create a Central West Bridgford Neighbourhood Plan which would help the community influence the development of the area in which they live and work. There was support in principle to this but it was felt it needed the agreement of a future open meeting.

ROADS
An issue had been raised about parking on Nearsby Drive and Sue was going to make inquiries to clarify what the issues were.

VERGE MAINTENANCE AND ENCLOSURE OF VERGES BY RESIDENTST
here was greater awareness and understanding of possible enclosures and the public consultation on the Facebook page had indicated that there was a wish to ensure the green spaces are protected in future as they were one of the things which were special about the estate.

PARK AND GREEN SPACE IMPROVEMENTS
The outcome of the consultation on the proposed orchard had been pretty split. The Sub-Group had looked at the consultation responses and come up with revised proposals ie, to reduce the number of fruit trees on the top site and plant a small number of ornamental cherry trees near the turning circle. There was support for these initial revised proposals including the benches.
Part of the play equipment had been broken for a couple of weeks and not repaired. It was pointed out that section 106 monies from the development of the Depot site could provide an opportunity to develop the play area in the longer term.
There was a need to allocate who would take on the watering responsibilities of the 5 trees recently planted on the field.
It was agreed
Simon would contact Rushcliffe to seek approval to the revised proposals and refer to possible future use of section 106 monies.
Catherine would allocate trees to those who had indicated they would be willing to water.

No 7 BUS ROUTE –USING FORMER BUS TURNING CIRCLE
It was noted that City Transport had not been willing to re-route the no7 bus to the turning circle. Following the pandemic it was felt there was a need to get people back using the buses before any survey was done about possible route changes.

SOCIAL EVENTS.
A possible picnic on the park on Saturday 4th September was provisionally agreed
Book Club was meeting on 19th and 20th April at the Willow Tree complying with the covid rule of 6.
Litter picking was arranged for Sunday 25th April 10 -12.

COMMUNICATION
The details of the website are to be pinned to the top of the Facebook page.
The idea of charging people to advertise on the website was to be floated on the Facebook page.
The meeting closed at 8.40pm.