AGM Friday May 8th: Worlds End Pavilion: 7:45pm

We have our Annual General Meeting on Friday at our normal venue, the World’s End Pavilion on the Jane’s Lane Recreation Ground.

Every house and flat was given written notice a couple of weeks ago.

You can volunteer to help, stand for election to the committee or just get involved in your own Association and help to improve what we do.

See you there on Friday!

Nick Lightbody

Chair

OCA Xmas Get Together at The Water Mill – Friday December 19th

After our recent public meeting – in the pub afterwards – it was felt that we had failed to yet address the social side of OCA’s objectives.

As a simple first step we invite every resident or tenant living in Orchard Close to meet at The Water Mill for a pre Christmas Drink on Friday December 19th in the evening.

More details to follow – please put the date in your diary!

Best wishes,

Nick, Paul, Lisa and Carole

OCA Meeting October 24th – draft Minutes

The OCA had a good meeting at the Worlds End Pavilion on October 24th 2014 – where virtually everything was agreed unanimously – here are the draft minutes.

Draft Minutes: OCA meeting 24-10-14
Worlds’ End Pavilion, Janes Lane
The meeting opened at 19:45 – chaired by Nick Lightbody OCA chair.

Present from Orchard Close:

B Kingaby

S & P Norman

M & K Rees

C Dack

B & S Swann

G Behar-Spicer

S Lyle

O Lopez

K Bradley

L Gregory

N Lightbody – OCA Chair

P Bishop – OCA Secretary

C Ingrey – OCA Committee

L Murray – OCA Treasurer

Guests in attendence:

G Everest & J Hopkins – Charlwood Gardens

R Matthews – Downscroft

A & M Fitzgerald – Downscroft

Cllr Graham Knight MSDC Councillor for St Andrews Ward

At the outset the chair reminded the meeting of the OCA’s overarching principle of respect for others which applied to the meeting and it was agreed to try to conclude the meeting – or at least the main business – by 20:45.

1. Minutes from the previous meeting on February 27 2014: Proposed by Kelly Rees and seconded by Steve – approved unanimously – the Chair noted that these minutes showed how important resolving the parking issues was to those who had attended that meeting.

2. Welcome and introduction of guests from outside Orchard Close who each introduced themselves.

Burgess Hill TC were thanked for sponsoring the meeting by providing the hall free of charge and the Chair of Wivelsfield PC sent his apologies because he was unable to attend.

3. The 17 other people present were all from Orchard Close and introduced themselves to the meeting in turn.

4. Parking: Before voting was undertaken on a series of proposals prepared by the Committee – after listening to feedback received on the original proposals – there was a general debate.

(a) Downscroft residents were concerned about the restriction on commercial vehicles and feared these vehicles would be parked outside their homes. It was confirmed that this was about residents bringing home their commercial vehicles and not plumbers/electricians who were doing work – who would be regarded as visitors.

(b) Cllr Knight suggested that the covenant against the parking of commercial vehicles on the estate may not be enforcable since there was no precise definition of what “commercial vehicle” meant and he said that he had seen a similar situation in Chanctonbury Road.

(c) Cllr Knight suggested that we look at the planning permission for the development and that if there was any obligation to conform to the “Secured by Design” standard in which case installing such lighting may in fact be the developers responsibility.

Note: this was checked after the meeting and Brighton Police advised that they were only asked to award Secured by Design Part 2 Accreditation to the 18 Housing Association units which covered the security of their doors and windows but did not extend to external lighting.

(d) questions were asked about who had placed an anonymous and threatening notice on a vehicle onwed by Martin Fitzgerald temporarily parked in Orchard Close – no one at the meeting appeared to know who was responsible – the Chair confirmed that no member of the OCA Committee was responsible and that if the OCA were to take such a step it would contain correct attribution and contact information since the OCA was committed to operating transparently.

(e) an opinion was expressed that the OCA were a self appointed group who were unrepresentative of those who live in Orchard Close – this was discussed and resolved when it was clarified and understood by all present that every household in Orchard Close was entitled to be represented and vote at the OCA’s general and annual meetings.

The Chair then tabled a series of resolutions as set out in the agenda as follows:

A: to install the signage discussed agreed previously to include a 20mph limit and a warning of children – subject to the cost being met by Trinity:

Proposed by Caz Dack and seconded by Gina Behar-Spicer – approved unanimously

B: To seek the installation of lighting in all the unlit parking courts:

Proposed by Bob Swan and seconded by Steve – approved unanimously

C: To agree the principle that residents should always first occupy their designated or allocated parking spaces and should always endeavour to park considerately:

Proposed by Steve and seconded by Gina Behar-Spicer – approved unanimously

D: To have visitors’ parking marked properly:

Proposed by Lisa Murray and seconded by Karen Bradley – approved unanimously

E: Where residents are concerned about the inconsiderate parking of others they may provide details to the OCA who will liaise with Trinity Estates:

Proposed by Gina Behar-Spicer and seconded by Peter Norman – approved by a majority with three against.

F: any residents who would like to have yellow lines painted in any specific areas should advise OCA who will prepare a suitable proposal and seek members approval – this proposal was withdrawn

Funds for outdoor leisure: The Chair outlined the background to the availability of £283,000 as detailed on the OCA website – orchardclose.wordpress.com.

Cllr Knight informed the meeting that he belived that only footpaths or bridleways within designated areas for outdoor leisure in the consultation could benefit from the funidng because other footpaths and bridleways came under the highways budget. The results of the Lewes D.C. consultation are due for release at the start of November.

Cllr Knight added the council has until 2022 to spend the money and suggested that the association should defer at this time how the money should be spent.

After further discussion the considered the following resolution:

In view of the oppoortunity the section 106 money provides for investment in the Worlds End community, we resolve that we should liaise with other community groups with the intention of forming an outdoor leisure group whose purpose should be to develop recommendations to Lewes District Council:

proposed by Nick Lightbody and seconded by Paul Bishop and approved unanimously

5: Membership and subscriptions: Paul Bishop OCA Secretary confirmed that every household is automatically treated as a member of the association and suggested that we should encourage members to make voluntary contributions of £10 a year.

Cllr Knight suggested that Trinity Estates and possibly other organisations could be approached for grants to negate the need to raise funding from members contributions.

Voting rights: Bob Swan proposed that in order to allow all residents to vote that postal and/or email voting be offered so everyone could have a say – whether or not they were able to attend a particular meeting.

It was agreed that this was a good idea and the Chair advised that the committee would consider whether any amendment to the constitution would be necessary to achieve this – amendments to the constitution would be proposed at the annual meeting in February.

6. Future initiatives:

A social get-to-gether: The meeting noted the OCA had not yet organised a social event for members and with Christmas just around the corner the meeting thought it would be nice to do something. Karen Bradley offered to try to find a date and venue that might be suitable for a get-together.

Note: The OCA Xmas get together is at the Watermill Public House on Friday December 19th – more details will be posted on the OCA website

There was no enthusiasm amongst those present to start a Neighbourhood Watch.

The Chair reminded the meeting of the OCA’s commitment to Community / Guerrilla Gardening and asked for anyone interested to speak to a member of the committee.

The meeting closed at 9:15pm when the Chair thanked everyone for their time in taking the trouble to attend and most of those present went for a drink together at the Watermill pub.

[ENDS]

 

Agenda for OCA Meeting on October 24th 2014

Here is the agenda for our meeting at the Jane’s Lane / Worlds End Pavilion commencing at 7:45pm on Friday October 24th.

Please come if you are able to ensure that your views on the matters we are discussing are heard.

If you are unable to attend please email the OCA Chair Nick Lightbody (n.lightbody@bolnore.com) concisely setting out the views you would like expressed on your behalf at the meeting – in which case the Chair will advise the meeting of your views.

OCA_Agenda_2014_Oct_v2

Notices placed on one or more cars regarding parking

Under the Parking Proposals thread there has been some recent comment about unsigned, unattributed anonymous notices being placed on cars – which were reported as stating:

“Warning
Your vehicle is illegally parked on private property
This notice is a courtesy reminder
Future violalations will result in your vehicle being immobilised.”

Some folk have asked whether these notices were placed by the OCA.

For the record I can confirm that no member of the OCA Committee has placed such a notice and that if any member did something like this then such a notice would not be anonymous!

As previously noted members of the committee have actively engaged and talked with drivers whom they believed were parking inconsiderately and asked them to bear in mind the needs of other residents when deciding where to park.

I trust that is clarifies this particular question.

Nick Lightbody

OCA Chair

Here is the document about Fire Access provided by Sussex Police

fire_access_guidance

Proposal for limited yellow lines

As noted in the leaflet distributed door-to-door yesterday and published on this site – part of the parking scheme proposal for which we are seeking approval on October 24th will be to have limited yellow lines painted on three short sections of roadway where there should be no parking – based on the rules set out in the property documentation about which we were recently reminded by Trinity Estates.

This is where the estate road is both very narrow and where large vehicles have difficulty with access.

This is outside No 30-32 & 36-39 on the east side of the road and outside Ash House on the west side of the road. The only parking in these areas outside designated parking spaces should be the visitors parking.

What do you think of this idea – if you have a view either way please make sure that you let us know – either comment on this page and/or email us on

orchardclosebh@gmail.com

24th October 2014 from 7.45pm – Notice of Association Meeting

OCA_OctMeeting_v4

Trinity Estates Notice to all residents about parking rule dated July 2014

Here is a scan of the letter that everyone received from Trinity Estates.

Trinity Orchard Close 280714

Here is the four page on-line consultation used by Lewes District Council

To respond you need to use the following link before Sept 30th 2014 – https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/theobalds