Meeting:
September 2024

Present

• John Gilbody (JG) - Chair
• Tracey Gilbody (TG) - Secretary
• Phil Steer (PS) - Member
• Wayne Roddis (WR) - Vice Chairman
• Kev Hayes (KH) - Member
• Adrian Mellor (AM) - Treasurer

Apologies

• Nigel Griffiths (NG) - Events lead
• Lisa Needham (LN) - Member

Finance update

Cash in bank: £6387.46
Cash in float: £657.06

Break down of allotted funds:
Community garden: £4796.28
WGRA: £1591.18

Adrian still unbale to access the bank account, AM and JG to work together to resolve this matter.

JG has updated the spreadsheet for the accounts and will email to AM for his future use.

Events

Nigel Griffiths unable to attend the meeting but had updated the chair just prior to the meeting.

Halloween

This would consist of a limited bar of Goolley Juice but not beer and wine Music and Face Painting. No other details.

A discussion between the committee members present concluded that Halloween usually took care of itself and the members were not sure if there would be sufficient volunteers to buy, serve drinks along with putting up/taking down the gazebos. Also no details re volunteers for Facepainting or where this would take place in case of inclement weather. Without any detailed costings or projected profit margins this was very difficult to agree on.

It was agreed a competition would be run for best Halloween decorated house with a prize of an Amazon voucher and possibly a voucher for Gravity ( to be sourced by Jaydene Hayes).

Christmas

Christmas event, NG intends to put out a survey on Facebook to gain residents opinions of this. This was discussed at length and it was felt a survey in 3 weeks would be too late to collate the results and then advertise the event as people would probably have commitments. A decision was made to keep things as simple and easy as possible and the event would be songs around the tree with Jenni Jay if available. Darton tap to provide the refreshments via their mobile bar and they would give a donation to WGRA.

The profit for WGRA would be made from raffle prizes sourced by the committee.

A date of the 8th December 2024 was agreed.

Actions

• WR to approach Darton Tap to book the mobile bar.
• NG to approach Jenni Jay re songs around the tree.
• JG/WR to approach Northfield for donation of Christmas Tree.

Directorship

KH updated the meeitng that they had met with the current director recently and the road adoption was progressing well.

Steps were in place to replace RMG as a management company, one company who have expressed an interest are A Dandy Wren, references had been requested from the company. A further meeting has been arranged for the 18th October with the management company and the resident directors for interviews to take place.

An AGM is to be arranged very soon during which RMG will hand over the accounts to the resident directors and then the proposed management company will have a chance to outline their plans.

RMG updates

WR updated the meeting that the repairs to the railings on Bloomingdale Court were not complete, the contractors were returning to complete the work to a satisfactory standard and there had been a reduction in the price for the work.

The bins in the playground were discussed. We are currently charged £60 per bin every 2 weeks for these to be emptied, the damage to these also comes at a cost, RMG are currently wanting to put signs in the playground relating to the bins at a cost of £60.

It was agreed that RMG should be asked to remove the bins from the playground and people should then be encouraged to take their rubbish home, put it in the bin near the bus stop and dispose of dog waste in the correct bins.

Anti social behaviour on the development was also discussed as there had been some recent damage to the flower beds on the Grange near River View and the metal linings to the bins in the playground had also been damaged. It was agreed the issue of ASB would be raised at the next Parrish Council meeting as the Police are due to attend this meeting. It was agreed the majority of the ASB took place from the end of the school day to early evening.

Purchase of Community Grow/Woodland

JG updated the meeting that this was progressing and our legal representative was waiting for documents from the seller to be in a position to progress further.

Parish Council

Several members of WGRA have been attending the meetings regularly and now have a good working relationship with the Parrish Councilors.

JG had agreed to be part of a Steering Group in relation to a Neighbourhood plan for WG, Woolley and Haigh. The group would be responsible for canvassing the residents of all the parishes to see what they wanted in the area and to see how this could be achieved. He would keep WGRA updated with any progress.

Website

This is ongoing and PS has made progress with it. However further content id required in relation to financial data, images for Eco Kids, community garden and events along with content for “Where’s the nearest” and “ Help I need a...“

Actions

• JG to supply financial data
• TG to supply images for Eco kids and Community grow
• JG to post on WGRA Facebook page for local business details to be included on page
• Volunteer needed to supply details for “where’s the nearest”
• JG to recirculate the action sheet for required information to all committee members for them to identify a piece of work they can undertake.

Any other business

Fencing has been removed at the top of The Grange by the Electricity board and there had been a number of contractor vehicles parked there over the last few days. The possibility of work being started on the new solar farm was discussed as the reason for this but information from the Parrish council meeting indicated this had not yet been approved.

The planters on the development was discussed in that some of the plants had become too large for the planters and had been removed and relocated. It was agreed and approved by the treasurer we could purchase some low growing plants for 4 of the boxes located at Windhill Rise, River View, The Grange x 2.