Findon Valley Residents' Association
Protecting the interests of our community and the countryside around us
Monday 11th April: Remote meeting via zoom
In Attendance:
Lance Allen (LA), Neil Worsfold (NW), Terri Binstead (TB), Tony Anderson (TA), Colin Binstead (CB), Roger Oakley (RO), Hannah Hunte (HH).
Apologies
Paula Barnes (PB), Clive Sanders (CS), Matthew Ward (MW), Lorraine Taylor (LT).
Minutes of last meeting and Matters Arising
The minutes of the 14th March were agreed and will now be published on the web site and displayed on the notice boards.
AGM minutes were agreed as factually correct and can now be issued as a draft.
Chair
LA said the AGM was successful and Graeme Brookers’ talk about Cissbury Fields and The Gallops was very interesting. He expressed disappointment that very few residents attended the meeting.
WSCC have now approved the new cycle route going North from the library, along Lime Tree Avenue and Maytree Avenue, while from Bost Hill the east side pavement will be widened to 3 metres (the roadway being slightly narrowed) and shared between walkers and cyclists.
The local neighbourhood representative for Hazelhurst Crescent and the southern half of Maytree Avenue (Bob Hodges) has applied for street signage for the area as he has sufficient members to qualify for this.
There is still some difficulty with a few members managing to use the new FVRA.org email and LA suggested that we push to get all committee members set up asap but will keep the Findon valley.org email address running alongside for the time being.
LA has arranged to meet Mary Meadows Chair of High Salvington Residents Association for a general discussion and with particular interest as to how High Salvington has acquired two speed deterrent lights. He is attending their AGM in May as a guest.
As FVRA is deemed a stakeholder LA has received details on the local plan for Worthing Borough Council from 2020 – 2036.There are no plans affecting Findon Valley in the document.
Vice Chair
The next market is on April 24th and the rota has been issued. We really need four people to help set up in the morning now.
Geoff has mowed the Community Garden this week and someone has added Ukrainian flags which are also on Offington roundabout.
There is no update on the library plot as yet Maggie is waiting for Darren Relf to get back to her.
The racking and shelving have gone up in the store but there is another leak so this has been reported to the council twice now.
The surgery car park has been secured for the Platinum Jubilee Celebrations and Mark Bassey with his jazz band has confirmed that they are available to play at the event.
Secretary
Both notice boards outside the public toilets are now functional. Ideas for a community noticeboard have been passed to Jacobs Steeles’ directors for their perusal. Sarah will be in touch when she has more news.As yet I have not heard from Kate Greening re the notice boards in the cemetery but Dan Humphreys has contacted and will follow it up with Kate.
Treasurer
The account is quite healthy showing we have £ 7475.23 which is the combined amount from the HSBC and CAF accounts.
CS has now transferred all money (bar £4.46) from HSBC to the CAF account and has applied to close the HSBC account.
The Sum Up card is now up and running with payments received reaching the CAF account within two working days.
The cash box will now hold a £15 float at all times plus a book of second class stamps. The box is held by the Treasurer.A total amount of £19.50 was collected at the market and has been paid over to the DEC Ukrainian Appeal.CS explained an error in the accounts over the use of Amazon Prime which has now been corrected. He will investigate the pros and cons of opening an Amazon Account for the use of the main three debit card holders for future authorised payments.
Membership
Details of membership fees and payments were produced and discussed.
NW has explained that in future he will only circulate a list of “Members Paid Last Month” to the treasurer as requested by the Chair.
A total membership for 2021 was 510 residencies. So far this year 175 subscriptions have been received from 167 members. Efforts are ongoing to inform people who are paying twice and this is expected to be helped by the closure of HSBC and hence standing orders to that account.
Schools liaison
PB has liaised with the school re the container garden competition and the school will advertise it to their families.
Competition open to children of primary school age and younger.
Seed sowing with the children has been arranged for Wednesday 27th April at 1.45pm.The school summer fair is on 1st July at 4pm, also agreed to have a stall possibly displaying the work of the residents association.
A resident who is a rep for Usborne’ books has contacted via messenger to say she can make up Jubilee “goody bags” for the children if required. Suggested we ask for about twenty to be donated to us for use as prizes at the Jubilee party.
PB is set up for parent mail with the school now.
She has also published 3 articles on the new website and thanked Tony for his help.
Environment
The next friends activity morning is a litter pick on the 23rd April.
Ideas would be welcome to try to encourage residents to litter pick routinely near their own homes.MW has received a complaint about the closure of the unofficial way onto Cissbury Fields at the top of Central Avenue which has now been blocked off.
Graeme Brooker has explained it has been closed to stop people using the slippery bank, It is not far to the larger more level opening.
Positive feedback from Councillors Dan Humphreys and Elizabeth Sparkes has been received regarding the Tree Street Survey and LA suggested that a meeting is now arranged between MW, Graeme Brooker and Elizabeth Sparkes to move the action forward.
Highways
RO stated that 183 responses had been received from the traffic survey amounting to around 10.3% of residents replying.It was agreed to now close the survey from the date of this meeting after collecting any outstanding forms from Jet Garage and the Post office, The responses were briefly detailed for the benefit of the meeting but RO will now collate them all and give a more detailed outcome in due course.The results will also be displayed on the web site.
Web Administrator
Approximately 75% of the pre release web site is now complete. TA is still waiting for additional posts to be added to the website from a few members but this should be addressed shortly.
A detailed account followed by discussion was given concerning the running of the website such as protocols, cookies etc.
It was generally recognised that some members are not managing the new site very well yet as there are so many different computer types that people use.
It was suggested that the web site should try to be ready to go live from the 1st May.
Events & Media
Jubilee Party: FVRA and FVFC are equal partners for this event with HH as the lead organiser and all Valley citizens are welcome to attend although it was accepted that people from outside the area may also come along as restrictions cannot be put in place.
Much discussion was had regarding events and most is still to be confirmed.
It will commence at 2pm but volunteers will need to arrive at 12 mid-day to help with setting up.
A road closure has been applied for from Findon Road to the junction with Lime Tree Avenue.
Another meeting is to be set up between the church and FVRA organisers.
More information will be available after this.Definite so far are a childrens craft table, bake off competition and a jazz band.
AOB
LA asked the Membership Secretary if the advert in Sussex Local generated any new members.
He will report back at the next meeting.
Members advised to keep a check on both their old and new email addresses during the transition period.
Date of next meeting Monday 9th May 7.30pm.
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