• 1 Apologies
Rachael & Sam Gildert, Stephen Cudworth, Paddy Marriott, Shelley Carter, Rachel & Alex Hadjigeorgiou, Mother Penny, Julia Barrow
Present
Simone Cudworth, Iain and Jo Blair, Danny Allen, Cherry Hughes, Natalie Ashworth, Wilf Day, Geoff & Sue Heaton, Peter Fell, Dean O’Brien, Sophie Kay
• 2 Matters Arising from last meeting
Bus routes in Newchurch – due to ongoing elections it has been difficult to obtain any information as to whether any changes can be made. Contact will be made to RBC via councillors once everything has settled down.
Signs for Garden – the request for signage for the community garden is ongoing.
• 3 Civic Pride update
number of members joined the Big Clean Up which was organised by Civic Pride and areas including Staghills Road, Newchurch Road and the area surrounding The Heys were concentrated on with regards to litter picking on the Friday morning with support given to the Waterfoot area on the Saturday. A photograph was submitted by Civic Pride to the Free Press including NVCA members and duly published in glorious technicolour! RG has kept them up to date on our work in the garden area and forwarded them photos. We have a page dedicated to Newchurch on their website.
Our ‘To Do’ list includes contacting RBC to see if they are able to provide us with litter pickers and contacting CP with a view to taking them up on their offer of Hi-Vi vests.
• 4 Website & Facebook updates
Grateful thanks go to Wilf Day & Danny Allen for their excellent work on our website and Facebook pages. The website www.newchurch-village.co.uk now has a dedicated page noting the history of the area including many interesting photographs. Wilf has recently been undertaking a study of the history of the pubs in Newchurch – go and take a look! Danny has worked his magic so that the Facebook and our new Twitter page interlink. RG also set up an Instagram for the group so please try to feed through anything going on in the area onto it. Twitter – @NewchurchRoss for all you tweeters out there!
• 5 Library Box in the Garden
Despite promises from a local company to provide us with a box nothing has been heard since. Whilst those present thought it was still a worthwhile idea it was agreed to put this on the ‘back-burner’ for now.
• 6 Garden Update
The scheduled improvements including hand rail, coping stone, repairs to path and poo bag dispenser in situ. It was agreed that the dispenser has made a significant improvement to the amount of dog fouling in the garden area. It was noted that on occasion dog owners have taken a large quantity of bags away with them and whilst the issue was acknowledged it was decided that this was to be expected on occasion and that the benefits of the dispenser far outweighed the practicalities of replacing the bags. SC agreed to make a further purchase of bags.The Gardening Club from St Nicholas Primary School came and undertook some weeding and planting of small bedding plants and thanks have been expressed to the children and staff involved.
Geoff Heaton offered to place a water butt in the garden so that water could be easily accessed for watering during dry weather. Geoff & Stephen C cut the grass on the bottom part of the garden as the council gardening team had not done this part due to only having a sit on lawn mower!
From the funding available it has been calculated that there is approximately £85 left to spend on plants. It was agreed to ask Julia Barrow if she would be willing to go shopping again.
• 7 Childrens Play Area on Staghills
A local resident of Staghills approached the group to see if we could help with the lack of play facilities for young children in the area. There is an area on Staghills which currently has a swing and small slide on it but these are apparently not up to current regulations. SC, RG & IB undertook a site visit and having considered its feasibility SC has put in an ‘in principal’ application to the council which will hopefully be approved. Funding will then be sought from various sources but fund raising by the group will also be required. SC will report back with news as received.
• 8 Social Nights
It was agreed that a further social night to Bare Arts would be arranged as the previous one had been enjoyed so much by those who went. Shelley would be able to make arrangements once we decided on a specific date.
We also need to consider whether a Christmas/January social event would be required.
The Boars Head are holding a Beer Festival on the 30th June – 2nd July and a Gin Festival on the 15th July.
• 9 New Kirk Fair
The date for this had been previously agreed as Sat 9th September as there are a number of other events over June & July weekends which have caused clashes in the past. A further separate meeting would be organised for 28th June at 7.30pm to enable the fair to be coordinated but an initial discussion was held. The Heritage weekend is running concurrently with the Rossendale Sixties weekend and our theme this year is The Sixties.
Jobs allocated so far –
Due to concerns over weather it was suggested that St Nicholas church be approached. SC has spoken to Mother Penny who has agreed to this.
Raffles tickets – prizes were agreed as 1st prize - £100; 2nd prize - £50 & 3rd prize - £25. We need to contact local businesses for additional prizes. SC said she would arrange for tickets to be ordered.
Bottle stall – it was agreed that this is a successful stall and Julia would be asked if she would be happy to run this again. Julia subsequently confirmed that she could.
Banner – we need a new one as last years was damaged in high winds. Iain Blair said that he would be able to look into this.
SC said that she had recently bid at a charity auction for a face painter and would use this for the fair. Julia Ansell has confirmed that she will be available on this date.
Sally Copley has agreed to run a stall using playing cards with a prize every time. We will need to provide small gifts.
Newchurch Rainbows will help and run a stall selling small childrens toys.
Newchurch Guides will run Hook a Duck and a Lucky Dip.
Whack-a-rat is stored at Newchurch Methodist Church.