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

August ‘05

Dear Everyone,

Open to all Greenfield and Grasscroft residents, our next meeting is on Wednesday 31st th August ’05 at 7.30 p.m. at the King Bill, Chew Valley Road, Greenfield.

AGENDA

Minutes of our last meeting held on Tues July 26th ‘05

Present: George & Christine Bennett, Mavis Bingley, Des O’Brien, Jane Coop, Joan & Mike Frost, K.C. & M.E. Davies, Mike & Edith Howarth, David & Kath McNeeney, Jill Read, Mike Rooke, Dave Sanders, Val Smith, Jason White, Susan Wolfenden.

Apologies: Adele & Trevor Baxter, David Chadderton, Graham Griffiths, Ted Nolan.

1. Matters Arising

	Phil Woolas had given Mike R. a letter from a House of Commons Library researcher, which Phil claimed indicated that were plans were being introduced to ensure that national minimum levels of health, educational and neighbourhood facilities were in place or provided for prior to developments taking place. In actual fact, this evidence from House of Commons debates is inconclusive and there are no plans at present to lay down such standards. However, as Jill Read indicated, a pilot scheme is being introduced in Milton Keynes in September, whereby developers will be required to contribute £20,000 per each new house built to support the local infrastructure. It was agreed that Mike should write again to Phil Woolas on this issue, sending a copy to his Ministerial colleague – Yvette Cooper, the Planning Minister.
	Customer Care –We have received no detailed or substantive reply from Andrew Kilburn (OMBC Chief Exec.) to our recent correspondence, so it was agreed that our follow up letter be sent, as minuted at our June meeting, asking what OMBC is doing to carry out the Government’s requirement of local councils to prepare Statements of Community Involvement based on key principles i.e. the public’s right to “access to information, opportunities to contribute to ideas, options and proposals, opportunities to be consulted and opportunities to get feedback and be informed on progress and outcomes.” To best support the communities we serve, organisations like the GGRA need to base our work on facts and knowledge of policies not on hearsay.
	Road Improvements – David McNeeney has written to C’llor David Jones asking why Chew Vale had not been prioritised for resurfacing, as requested at a previous Area Committee Meeting. The council leader promptly agreed to look into the matter and passed the photos and information on to Highways Dep’t who replied mistaking Chew Valley Rd for Chew Vale. Since then they have stated that Chew Vale is now on the resurfacing programme for 2006/7 - another success for GGRA lobbying the Council.
	Web-site and Publicity – i). Steve Duffy, Manager of the Print & Design Dep’t of the Chron. had agreed to waive the £117.29 fee for door-to-door distribution as not all households in Greenfield/Grasscroft had been leafleted and there was no way of proving which roads had or had not been covered. ii). It was noted that the article and photo in the Chron had given the website welcome coverage. iii). Stephen Hoy of Vol. Action Oldham was still in the process of completing the design for our Meetings’ publicity poster.

2. Correspondence and Communications

	The Planning Inspectorate has indicated that John Prescott will issue his decision re. Tesco’s bid for the Knoll Spinning site on or before 22 nd November.
	No formal letter to GGRA had yet been received, but Councillor Jill Read said a report re. 14, Mossley Road has been drawn up by Malcolm Simister (OMBC) recommending that Oldham ’s Cabinet decide to sell the council land on this site.
	Letters from Maxine Parker (OMBC Planning) had been received giving us notice as objectors re. the Nut Bottom and Greenfield Social Club sites nr. Fletcher’s Mill. As Mike R. was due to go on holiday, George Bennett agreed to speak on our behalf.
	We had received Saddleworth Civic Trust’s Spring newsletter. Dave Sanders suggested we made a link from our website to the Civic Trust’s website.
	Details of events publicised/organised by Vol. Action Oldham were distributed round the meeting.

3. Treasurer’s Report

Based on our bank statement of 13/7/05 , our current balance is 674.97. GTEC Printers were now due payment of £180.00 for printing our website publicity leaflets.

4. Policing Issues

As C’llor Jill Read sits on the Greater Manchester Police Committee, this was an opportunity to share our recent local experience. Mike H. spoke of the problems encountered in contacting the police by phone. Jill Read said there were problems with overload at the moment on the 0161 number. Mike H. said there similar difficulties encountered on the Homewatch number.

As a result of late night noise/disturbance issues being raised by GGRA at last month’s Area Committee Meeting, Val Smith and Susan Wolfenden were happy to report that significant progress had been made at the Freizland Horse Arena. Women walking dogs felt much safer, now that the gate was securely locked after 8.0 p.m. Though there was still some difficulty re. key distribution to ensure access from Arena users, David McNeeney suggested that Val and Susan contact Erwin Hopwood at the Countryside Ranger Service to sort this problem.

5. Fletcher’s Mill

It was confirmed that local people are set against exploitation of the site by the present owner Nat Purie (i.e. housing). Whilst there were many potential community, leisure, tourist and educational uses for the site, Dave Sanders felt that past experience (e.g. Knoll Spinning) indicated that we should ensure that our proposed development options were achievable in financial terms.

It was agreed that a GGRA Fletcher’s Mill sub-group be convened to discuss plans for action and strategy re. the future of this site. The group will report back in August to outline proposals for a public meeting etc.

6. Report from Area Committee

Kath reported that GGRA had presented 3 issues to the meeting – i). Road Improvements to Hey Top/Bradbury Lane , in addition to Clough Lane , Higher Arthurs and Chew Vale highlighted at the previous Area C’tee Meeting ii). Policing at the Freizland Horse Arena (see above) and iii). The faulty drain grid on 159-161 Manchester Rd.

Regret was expressed that the Area Committee’s Delegated budget had been further reduced this year, reducing the support for local projects.

7. Any Other Business

	Dave Sanders had received a letter from an agency requesting to survey his property. He’d found out from C’llor Richard Knowles how it is planned that 1 in 10 properties in the OMBC area are to be targeted in this way, in order to inform future decisions about housing policy. Residents have a right to refuse such surveys.
	Jason confirmed that the new Freedom of Information Act gave us a right to access information requested from public bodies. Concerned about the withdrawal of funds from Delph Library, George suggested we write to OMBC requesting the annual costs and book loans in 2002/03, 2003/04 for all libraries in the borough.

8. Date of Next Meeting – Wed 31 st August 7.30. p.m. (NB: This is a week later than at first planned when we met in July.)

For past minutes, please visit the minutes archive.