Howgate and Distington Partnership
To Members of the Steering Group
Steering Group Meeting
24th June 2014
Moresby Parks Social Club
Note of Meeting
Present:
Benny Quayle (Parton)
Alan Lawson (Moresby)
Frank Hollowell (Lowca)
Suzanne Cooper (Area Support CCC)
Charlotte Brown (Locality Officer Copeland B C)
Sue Hayman (County Cllr Howgate)
Christine Jones (Distington Young Peoples Club)
Dave Smith (Big Local Distington)
Gillian McAllister (Copeland B C)
Ernie Davison (Copeland B C)
Chris Shaw (Coordinator)
1. Apologies
Apologies were received from Nick Troughton (Moresby) John and Jackie Bowman (Distington) Stan Peel (Parton). It was agreed that Benny Quayle would chair the meeting.
2. Distington Big Local. The chairman welcomed Dave Smith who had been appointed the temporary paid development officer for the project. Dave said that Distington had been awarded the grant in tranche 3 of the programme and that there were two other projects in Cumbria. He said the village was chosen as it had high indices of deprivation but had not benefitted from other grant aided projects such as the single regeneration budget or market town funding. He said that the area was simply the village and Hayes Castle and Winscales Avenue but Pica and Gilgarran were not included. The area chosen had a population of 1800. He said he had started in 2013 and a community consultation had been undertaken from July to November. He said that a steering group had been formed which had regular meetings with to date never less than 16 people present. He said in addition to residents the Home Group, the Citizens Advice Bureau, Impact Housing and Lakes College were usually represented. There had been a series of Big Chat meetings, as part of the consultation process, at which attendance varied. He said a shop premises were rented to begin with as a drop in centre but now the office was in the Community Centre and he worked from there three days each week. The scheme had now employed an apprentice. He said communications were through a bi monthly newsletter and both Facebook and Twitter were used. Dave said he had arranged a meeting for local businesses and 6 were represented. He said it was a useful meeting. One of the aims was to raise employment prospects for locals and discussions had taken place with the Whitehaven Job Centre about a jobs club in Distington. He said that there were now approximately 70 businesses on Lillyhall and the Lakes College, for example, employed over 300. He said that the Credit Union had started a collection service in Distington and to date 36 people had signed up. The immediate aim was to agree a plan that could be signed off by the Big Local Trust but first a budget had to be agreed and this was not proving to be an easy task. He said that once a plan had been accepted the steering group will become a local board with 10 residents and five representatives of local businesses and organisations. The aim was to have the plan agreed by October 2014. He said there had been a logo completion and discussions about an energy club to look at solar panels on buildings in the village. Dave explained how grants from a community chest may be given with a current maximum of £500. The chairman thanked Dave for his presentation which everyone present had found very informative
3 Dog Waste Enforcement The chairman welcomed Gilliam McAllister and Ernie Davison from Copeland borough council who had agreed to talk about the problems that were prevalent in the villages with dog waste not being cleared. She said that the district council were aiming to extend their campaign to the whole of Copeland. She said so far stencil warnings had been placed on the footpaths in Egremont, by Bransty School, on Esk Avenue Whitehaven and on the Cycle path. These were all areas which had been reported. She said that she should be contacted with specific areas if the parish councils wished action to be taken Christine said that around Distington Church Road was particularly bad. Alan Lawson said the area around the post office at Moresby Parks needed to be targeted. Gillian said that her team would blitz an area but often a local campaign with some leafleting did improve the situation. She said that the Dogs Trust supplied leaflets. If the district council were asked to assist then as much information as possible was required and the enforcement team would visit owners if specific information was available. Gillian said that the Dog Control Orders in Copeland were due for review and the present areas where dogs were excluded or a dog’s on leads order was in force were on the Copeland Website. She said the team did undertake school visits to educate children and raise the profile of the enforcement team and that if further advice and information was required she could be contacted at the Moresby Parks Depot.
4 Note of the last meeting ((March 2014). The note was agreed Chris said that there was only one item from the meeting which did not appear on the agenda.
a) Broadband. Chris said that in the absence of Nick information was limited but he had been told that whilst 50% of the area was now covered there had been only an 8% take up.
5. The annual report It was agreed that the annual report represented a fair record of the activities of the group in the year to 31st March 2014. Charlotte said that she had suggested to the Whitehaven locality that a report in a similar form should be prepared for their area. Chris said that he understood that other localities were considering whether to produce an annual report.
6 Locality Action Plan and Local Growth Priorities It was noted that a Copeland partnership meeting was held on the 15th May 2014 concentrating on Copeland as a centre for nuclear excellence with guest speakers from the Local Enterprise Partnership and the National Nuclear Laboratory. It was agreed to await the note of the meeting given that none present were able to attend.
7 Traffic and Highways Chris said that he had written to both the county council and the Highways Agency for a date when the POPE presentation would be given. He said that he had been advised by a CCC Highways officer that whilst they were reluctant to supply more salt grit bins and then only at the cost to the parish council they were willing to move existing bins if it was believed a more appropriate site was suitable.
8. Coastal Path and Flooding. Chris said that the new rights of access started on the 14th April 2014 and that the county council had cleared the underpass on the Lowca side of the beck He said new fingerposts had been erected. Diane Ward from the district council was in the process of producing information which would be included in interpretation boards to be erected in Lowca and Parton. County Cllr Hayman said she was working with the school to make a flood - such as happened in the winter- less likely to recur
11. Wind Turbine Applications. Chris said that current information was as below:
i). Lillyhall Landfill site. The application was refused
iii) Blackwood Beck Wind Farm The developer has said that no action will be taken for twelve months
iv). Land near Bonny Farm Moresby The appeal had failed
v). Land at Castlerigg Farm The planning inspector had granted the application
vi) Wind farm at Weddicar Rigg The developer had withdrawn his application to the High Court
10 Other Business
a) Neighbourhood Forums and Grants Suzanne said that the next forum would be at St Marks Church Moresby Parks on the 15th July 2014 and the autumn meeting would be in Distington with a provisional date of the 18th November 2014. She said a grants panel meeting would be held on the 17th September 2014 and thereafter in December 2014 and February 2015.Suzaane said that Howgate & Distington Neighbourhood Forum budgets for 2014/15 are as follows:
General - £2,459.00
0-19 - £2,126.00
From the 0-19 budget the following grants were awarded at the last grants panel meeting on 11 June 2014:
Lowca Community Resource Centre £500 towards the cost of play equipment for their Play Park;
North Copeland Youth Partnership £500 towards the cost of summer activities;
Let’s Play Pre-School £400 towards the cost to extend the outside play area.
In addition Cllr Sue Hayman is to award £2,000 to Lowca Community School and £2,000 to Let’s Play Pre-School for the projects outlined above from her Local Members Scheme leaving £2,000 which she is considering giving to Parton to alleviate flooding issues.
b) Copeland Locality Officer Charlotte said that this would be her last meeting as she had obtained a post with the Development Control team at Copeland Borough Council. The chairman on behalf of the group wished her well in her new post.
11 The date and place of the Next Meeting
The next meeting will take place at Lowca Social Club on the 9th September 2014 beginning at 7.00pm
Meeting ended 8.30 pm
J C S July 2014