Sorry this is late - it's our intention to put these minutes up on the Blog site in the future. Regards Peter
Chairman:
Malcolm Newell ~ Treasurer: Sarah Mackness ~ Secretary: Jeanne Hursey ~ P.R. Peter Bruce
Committee Members: Jenny Newell ~ Carol Denieffe
MINUTES of MEETING
held on Tuesday 19th May 2015
at Waters Edge, Dawn Rise, Eastchurch at 7.30pm
1.
PRESENT: Malcolm Newell, Peter Bruce, Sarah
Mackness, Jeanne Hursey, Carol Denieffe
2.
APOLOGIES
FOR ABSENCE:
Jenny
Newell sent her apologies for absence.
3.
MINUTES
OF INAUGURAL MEETING HELD ON 8TH MARCH 2015
Everyone
present read the previous Minutes and all agreed these were OK and the Chairman
was authorised to sign them as a correct record of the proceedings.
4.
MATTERS
ARISING FROM ABOVE MINUTES NOT COVERED ELSEWHERE
Malcolm
advised the meeting that we need to spread out, would like to invite other
local people and Michael Jones had indicated his willingness to come on
board. The Group will, however, need a
bigger venue such as the village hall, but this needs a minimum of six weeks’
notice.
5.
CHAIRMAN’S
REPORT
Malcolm
advised the meeting that he was chasing Swale Borough Council but also said
that letters from individuals were far better than one letter with a lot of
signatures as this would only be classed as one letter by SBC irrespective of
how many signatures were on it. He said
it was very important that everybody should support everybody.
He
went to say that a meeting at the village hall about the different funding
available suggested that there are various bits of funding but we have to know
how to fill in the forms for these.
Peter McDonald is going to help fill in the form for the Localism Grant.
Other forms of funding are only open for a set
period of time. One funding is Swale
Borough Council, another is The Big Lottery fund, also Eastchurch Parish
Council Solar Farm Community Benefit fund.
He also said that Peter McDonald had contact English Nature and that he
(Peter McDonald) had said that the SBC grant has been allocated but has never
had a timescale put on it. Sarah
suggested that if it is too difficult to fill in the forms, one of us should
help out. Malcolm had received a letter
from Fiona Jackson, Secretary of the Eastchurch Parish Council, stating that
they are happy to support the Group and would like to be informed of our
meeting dates etc. Jeanne was requested to deal with this.
6.
TREASUERS’S
REPORT
Sarah
reported that the Bank account was now opened but no money in yet and more
forms need signing. Malcolm said he has
money to go in but there is someone coming to put more shingle on the lane as
we did not have enough previously and he will need paying for this. Peter commented that a drain had been covered
over and Malcolm said he would sort this out
Sarah
advised that she would need receipts for any monies paid out, stating that it
was very important that things need to be done properly and on the right
footing as all committee members are liable.
Accounts
need to be done once a month and bank statements available. Peter commented that until we get some money we
don’t need to get “buried” under this.
7.
P.R.
OFFICER’S REPORT
Peter
said that anything on the “blog” goes to the Parish Council, Andrew Bowles, AND
Elizabeth Truss (head of DEFRA), which department is also in charge of the
Environment Agency.
Sarah
asked about sending out a document introducing ourselves and Peter said this
had already been done and took hours and hours to do. He said he had now put a
box on the “blog” which allows people to put their e-mail address in but said
that not everybody owns or has access to a computer
There
was discussion about Kent BRFM Community Radio which Sarah said were going to
help support our Group. Peter said he had had a live discussion with
Danny from BRFM about four years ago and that possibly a letter to them could
be of help.
8.
SECRETARY’S
REPORT
As
this was only the second meeting of our group, Jeanne had nothing to report.
9.
ANY
OTHER BUSINESS
Carol
said she was very worried about problems in the next winter as regards the
cliff erosion etc. Malcolm has a letter from Southern Water which says that
services for everybody will be affected and he pointed out that 16 houses will
be immediately affected if the cliff goes.
Peter said usually it is a committee that has to be formed and then
money is paid to that committee. We are
now a committee with a bank account so what we say the cost for what needs to
be done is the amount that needs to be paid into our bank account to cover those
costs. Malcolm said that Peter McDonald
has obtained prices from contractors and said he would ask Peter where we are
on this as we don’t have the final bits of paper.
10. DATE OF NEXT MEETING
Monday 13th
July 2015 at 7.30pm at the Village Hall if Malcolm can arrange this, otherwise
at Lysander Lodge, 2 Sunset Close, Eastchurch (off First Avenue).
There
being nothing further to discuss the meeting closed at approximately 9.30pm.
