Residents Association AGM

Bower Ashton 2009 Annual General Meeting

Bedminster Cricket Club Pavilion, Clanage Road, Bower Ashton, Bristol. 7:00pm 16th July 2009.

Peter Frost, Secretary

Guests:

• Chris Gardener, Head Teacher, Ashton Park School
• Paul Drage (site based), Skanska Project Manager
• Owen Wright (site based), Skanska Site Supervisor
• George Taylor (core office based), Skanska Construction Director
• Dick Hibdidge, Bristol City Council
• Damien Pick, Demolition. RM Penny Ltd

Alasdair Groves: Chairmans Introduction

Alasdair opened the meeting by thanking the residents & our guests for attending in such torrential rain. He also thanked Bedminster Cricket Club for allowing the association free use of the pavilion for our AGM.

Alasdair noted that the committee had agreed to keep the residents association membership free, unless we had a specific need to raise funds.

Keith Sawyer: Treasurers Report

Period covered 25th July 2008 - 16th July 2009

Opening balance	£75.66	(as per statement)
Income received	£0.00
Expenses paid	£0.00
Closing balance	£75.66	(confirmed by phone 13/7 and statement ordered)

General comments

There was a large amount of printing carried out over the year for various leaflets and letters produced, all the costs for the layout and printing were carried by Jill Carwardine at no cost to Bower Ashton Residents Association (BARA).

All the web site design and updates were done by Peter Frost again at no cost to BARA.

Various committee members have carried out tasks which have been a considerable drain on their time and resources especially the Skanska project and ongoing items like the Roundabout and Parking schemes again no costs for Tel / Internet / Mail or Time have been passed to BARA.

It took 6 months to get the 3 new signatories accepted by Barclays and changed over the new signatories are Alasdair, Peter and myself with 2 from 3 to sign on cheques.

Peter Frost: Secretary's Report

One part of what we try to do is to keep the community informed of any issues that could affect Bower Ashton.

We do this mainly on-line to keep the work and costs down and the Residents Association does have a section on the Bower Ashton website, www.bower-ashton.co.uk for anyone here who hasn't seen the website. I aim to keep the website up to date with all the local news, comments and the Residents Associations formal responses to these issues.

We have also delivered 4 mail drops over the last year - membership forms & questionnaires, 2 drops of Ashton Park School information and the current AGM notice - and I pass on my thanks to those who have designed, printed and distributed the documents, that was done mainly by Jo Foster, Jill Carwardine and Shiela Westlake. I must add the typo's on the AGM meeting notice were my mistakes.

For any residents who have filled in a membership form (and given an email address) I also send out the occasional email newsletter. This is not one way information either and I appreciate all the information sent back to me.

One of the first tasks the committee set itself was to get the communities approval and I am pleased to say that 47 households are now members, that covers 55% of Bower Ashton.

Since the new committee first met in July 2008, we have met 8 times.

Alasdair our chairman has replied formally:

4 times over the various Ashton Park School re-development issues & on the BS3 Parking restriction changes that affect the roundabout end of Parklands Road and Blackmoors Lane.

Alasdair is also planning to reply on: The new cycle path plan & Bristol City's new stadium proposal.

We do aim to be proactive, looking forward to try and improve issues seen by the community as a problem. In a questionnaire sent out last year, it was clear that parking, traffic and speeding issues were top of the concerns mentioned.

Members of the committee also have:

Met with the Bristol highways chief engineer to discuss our parking and traffic issues and attended some of the Greater Bedminster Community Partnership meetings.

My thanks finally to Roger Scarrett for his work on Ashton Park School parking issues, other work and communicatons sent on parking and policing.

Ashton Park School (APS) development plan

Our guests from Skanska and RM Penny Ltd discussed progress to date and the demolition planning.

Ashton Road temporary access route is now complete, with the temporary classrooms in place and the sports area to be prepared in the next few days. Demolition will continue into September.

Some comments from a Q&A session -

• No pile driving is planned.
• Much of the old school building material will be recycled on site. The crusher has a dampening process to minimise dust.
• When asked about phase II and III of the project, Chris Gardener (Head Teacher APS) noted that the school is highly unlikely to get funding agreed for these phases, with Bristol primary schools likely to be re-developed first, when money becomes available.

Rupert Newman: Bower Ashton Roundabout

Rupert ran through the plan for a make over of the Bower Ashton roundabout with a theme of Ashton Courts 50th Anniversary.

Aiming to reduce traffic speed in Bower Ashton, improve the Clanage Road crossings and the Courtlands Lane exit. Rupert, Jo Foster and others have also had discussions with Bristol Highways Chief Engineer on these issues.

Re-election of the Committee

Standing for re-election: Alasdair Groves, Keith Sawyer, Peter Frost, Jill Carwardine, Jo Foster, Roger Scarrett, Rupert Newman, & Stuart Rutherford.

Proposed by Stuart Orme, seconded by Brian Hamilton with all hands in favour and non against.

Any Other Business

• Alasdair thanked John Hanning for running the Neighbourhood Watch (NW) scheme for 14 years!
• John Hanning who wishes to resign as our NW representative noted that Bower Ashton must have a formal representative for the NW, or the NW signs must be removed and the NW insurance discounts would be lost.
• Richard Naden suggested asking for a police representative to attend at the next AGM.
• Alasdair asked for any suggestions for a street party location - while Clanage Road (the A369) was suggested :), residents can email me if they have any less dangerous suggestions and I will pass them on.

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