Minutes of Meeting

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 19^th 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 8^TH 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 13^th 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.