Registered Charity No: 504535

MINUTES of CDF Meeting held on Wednesday 16 October 2013 at 2.00pm in the United Reformed Church Hall, Whitehaven.

Present:Linda Wilson [Vice Chairman], Bryan Wilson, Cllr BrianCrawford [CCC], Cllr Eileen Weir [CCC], Philip Pattinson, OssieCoyles, Peter Steele, Cllr John Bowman [CBC], Heather Morrison [Access Officer] and Eric Urquhart [Treasurer]

In the absence of Anne Bradshaw [Chairman] Linda welcomed everyone to the meeting and invited Cllr Weir our second County Council representative to introduce herself.

  1. Apologies Anne Bradshaw [Chairman], Cllr Elaine Woodburn [President], Kate Smith [CBC], Ian McConnell, Lynn Craig [DaCE], JimPullin [COSC], Alison Walton and Rocky Moore [SCDG].
  1. Minutes The Minutes of the meeting held on 18 September 2013 were accepted as a correct record. [Proposed by Ossie and seconded by Philip.
  1. Matters arising

A]The main comments related to problem parking and crossing areas and outstanding works for discussion at our November meeting [which will be an open meeting] with Kevin Cosgrove from CCC in attendance. The Queen Street/Duke Street junction was highlighted both for crossing on the bus stop side of Duke Street and the crossing to the traffic island in the middle of Duke Street.

  1. Catherine Street Car Park

Linda reported that following the previous discussion between Anne and Sue Graham [Health & Safety Officer CBC] work had been undertaken so that in place of the previous three somewhat inadequate disabled bays there were now six correctly designated disabled bays all with hatched areas. Dropped kerbs are still needed [responsibility of CCC]so we will need to keep an eye on progress.

  1. AOB

A]Heather indicated she planned an AWG meeting at the end of November and 26/11 was suggested. There are two items for discussion – a new housing development and concern from a member of the public about poor disabled access to St Bees café.

B]Peter drew attention to a recent article in Private Eye highlighting mounting concern against ATOS, their methods and results, and John was anxious about the number of people who are dropping off Benefits and without PIP the result is poverty. He reminded members that anyone who has an ATOS interview is entitled to have it recorded.

C]Heather advised that CBC were developing a major change in their Planning process to make information more accessible to the public. Plans will be available to be viewed on-line or in person at the Copeland Centre in Whitehaven or the Millom office. John added it was part of the new CBC web for digital inclusion.

D]Peter asked about the five-yearly health check for those aged 75 and over and it was noted that most Pharmacies offer a free half hour consultation to review medication.

  1. Date of next meeting

The next meeting is the open meeting with Kevin Cosgrove from CCC to be held at 2pm on Wednesday 20 November 2013 in the United Reformed Church hall, Whitehaven.

The meeting closed at 3.05pm.