Secretary: Mike Rooke, Sycamore Mount, Higher Arthurs, Greenfield, OL3 7BE

April ‘05

Dear Everyone,

Open to all Greenfield and Grasscroft residents, our next meeting is on Wednesday May 18th ’05 at 7.30 p.m. at the King Bill, Chew Valley Road, Greenfield.

AGENDA

Minutes of our last meeting held on April 19th ‘05

Present: George Bennett, Trevor Harrison, Kath & David McNeeney, Mike Rooke, Alan Warrington.

Apologies: Adele Baxter, Trevor Baxter, Christine Bennett, Mavis Bingley, Mary Booth, Edith & Mike Howarth, Des O’Brien.

The chair asked Mike R. (Sec) to send our best wishes to Mike Howarth who is presently in hospital.

1. Matters Arising

	Fletchers’ Mill – There’s nothing to report on Marion’s Field, but there have been two planning applications submitted by Whiteoak Ltd to OMBC a). for Nut Bottom (farm buildings at the eastern edge of the site below Dovestones) - 8 Holiday Lets and 2 houses. and b). for the Social Club - 6 flats. Richard Knowles had confirmed via e-mail that he’d already asked for both applications to go before planning committee. Like Richard, we agreed that OMBC should resist any ploy to develop properties until a decision had been made re. the usage of the whole site.
	Phil Woolas – Mike had sent a reminder and received an e-mail reply on 22 nd March in which the MP promised to send the House of Commons Library Briefing on this issue, but this hasn’t been forthcoming. In his e-mail, Phil suggested that our proposal would effectively lead to a “nationalised planning policy”. The meeting felt we should follow this up after the election and ask him to clarify exactly what he had meant by such a comment. It may not be possible to lay down rigid pre-conditions for development, but at least firm guidelines should be laid down and put into practice across the country.
	Gail Richards - David had told March’s Area Committee Meeting that he still hadn’t received a reply from her as Managing Director of Primary Health Care Trust. Simon Shuttleworth (Jan Joshi’s assistant) had been most helpful in pursuing this matter on our behalf, but alas we’d still had no word from Gail.
	14, Mossley Rd, Grasscroft – We’d received a letter from Malcolm Simister explaining that the council had received legal advice on this issue which is now being considered. He promised to contact us once a decision had been made.
	OMBC’s Customer Care – Mike had written to the Chief Exec. Andrew Kilburn re. OMBC asking what codes of practice and standards were in place and in the light of the new Freedom of Information Act what was being done to put these into practice. Mr Kilburn replied with a copy of OMBC’s Customer Charter and requested that we give him examples of the “unanswered letters and voicemails” referred to in my letter so he could investigate matters. Having asked for examples over our e-mail network, Mike referred to the 14 Mossley Rd saga, the fact that residents were not invited to the site visit at the corner of Boarshurst Lane/Kinders Lane when it was a ourselves and an individual member of the public who had requested the visit, and the fact that no reply had been received from our chairman’s e-mailed (Feb 14 th) request about when general consultation at the Chew Vale PFI would take place. Mike had concluded his letter by indicating that we didn’t want to see anyone’s blood on the carpet but simply wished to see the council’s proposals for improvement and change. Once a reply is received from Andrew Kilburn, Mike will allude further to the new Freedom of Information Act, under which we’re entitled to be told what we’re allowed to know.
	Road Improvements – A letter was being sent fromthe Area Committee to OMBC’s Highways & Engineering Dept to convey our request to re-surface Clough Lane, Kinder Lane and Chew Vale.
	PFI Housing Development – Mike had sent a letter to Rob Farnos (PFI Manager – 1 st Choice Homes) requesting for a date when wider consultations with nearby residents and stakeholders could begin once the one-to-one interviews had been concluded, but had received no reply. Nine men in suits from a Bolton-based private agency had arrived one morning to Wood Square to begin meeting residents. From what they said to Wilf Hulme and others on the site, it was apparent that they hadn’t been briefed properly.
	Website - George pointed out that photos accessible from the front page depicted Uppermill scenes, not pictures of Greenfield. Mike said this would be rectified, before we launched the site officially with our leaflet campaign.

2. Correspondence and Communications

GMCVO had written requesting us to complete an Expression of Interest Form to apply for broadband funding again. The guidelines were even tighter than before, so it hardly seemed worth going to all the trouble of making an application only to be given a knock-back as goalposts get shifted.

We’d received plans announced at the last Area Committee meeting to improve Greenfield Park and these had been circulated on our e-mail network.

CPRE’s Lancashire Branch had written, enclosing a contacts form which we’ve completed and returned. They promised to alert us to advance warning of any significant planning developments in our area should these arise in future.

Discussions with staff in OMBC Planning and with Neil Roebuck (an Environmental Officer responsible for Green Spaces) in Oldham’s Strategic Planning Dep’t had confirmed that all the land on Sykes’ Farm south of Manchester Road was in the greenbelt. An appeal to the UDP Inquiry against the greenbelt re. the plot between the farm buildings and the old co-op at the corner of Friezland Lane/Manchester Rd had been rejected. Neil said it was OMBC’s policy to preserve our green spaces and resist any piecemeal incursions onto our greenbelt. Kath felt that such fine words have a hollow ring to them, considering the track record of the council on previous occasions.

A letter in support of residents objecting to a planning application to erect a detached house at 31, Chew Brook Drive had been submitted to the planning office, as the proposal would entail a new entrance/access blocking a busy right of way used by young cyclists and pensioner pedestrians. .

3. Treasurer’s Report

With £715.97 in the bank and £12.00 cash in hand, our present balance is £727.97, much of which is committed to printing and distribution of our web-site launch leaflet.

The meeting supported David’s suggestion that Mrs Jean Tennant (Treasurer of the Freizland Users’ Group) be asked to audit the association’s books at the year-end. She’s well-versed in auditing the accounts of voluntary bodies.

4. Policing Issues Update

Though we couldn’t be sure if Mike Howarth would be able to attend our next meeting, it was agreed to keep this item on our May agenda as David knew of someone with a specific interest in this subject who would be attending next month.

5. GGRA Constitution

To begin the process of updating our constitution, we went about suggesting various revisions. George agreed to report back to next meeting with a proposal for a revised version. Meanwhile, Mike would contact Catherine Jones (at Voluntary Action) who gives advice on drafting constitutions for voluntary bodies.

Contrary to previous arrangements for July, it was agreed to hold our General Meeting in September – when our new Constitution could be formally ratified.

6. Web-site Update

Following a visit from Anthony Chiu to Mike’s house, ggra.co.uk was now up and running. It was now possible for Mike to edit the site from his home pc, a process that would become much easier once he’d switched to Broadband at the end of April.
Jill Reid had sent us e-mailed Congratulations, but Mike felt there was still a lot to do to the site, not least to make the Hot Issues more comprehensive and up-to-date. It was hoped these and some key factual changes/additions would be made prior to the leaflet distribution planned to take place between our May and June meetings.

Because the Chron’s own printing dep’t functioned best with AppleMac artwork software programmes, it was agreed that we should obtain a quote from GTEC (Vol. Action Oldham’s pc friendly Printers). The Chron could guarantee distributing to all 2,500 homes in our area for little more than £100.00.

Mike said he’d send a draft of the wording to be overlaid on our Homepage to David and George before sending this on to Anthony.

7. Any Other Business

Publicity – Mike had been in discussions with Mary Booth, a Greenfield resident and editor of the new Saddleworth Monthly being distributed in the OL3 postcode area. It is intended to extend circulation into the Grasscroft area. Though the publication will be funded by private business advertising, Mary hopes to include monthly listings giving contact details of local voluntary organisations with key events. She plans to do a feature on GGRA some time in the future.

Boarshurst/Kinders Lane junction – Many of the lorries servicing the Business Park appear to be half-empty.It was decided that we should obtain the list of companies trading here from Simon Shuttleworth and then write to them all, requesting that they ask their haulage contractors to reduce the size of lorries visiting the site to avoid traffic and access problems.

Minutes – George said it would be a good idea to publish our minutes on the website. Mike said he’d look into how this could be done and report back in May.

For past minutes, please visit the minutes archive.