Ham and Petersham Neighbourhood Forum Committee Meeting Notes

Wednesday 6 November 2013

7.30pm Community Room Ham Library

Attendees:

• Forum Chair: Maggie Bailey (Head Teacher Grey Court School)
• 2 Amenity Groups: Andrew Beedham (Ham United Group) Peggy Curtis (Ham Amenities Group)
• 4 ‘area’ reps from local residents: Andy Rogers, Justine Glynn, Jude Holmes and Cornelia Costeanu (shared post) and Geoff Bond
• 1 Sports organisations: Joe Noble (Kew & Ham Sports Association)
• 1 Social Groups: Jean Loveland (shared post)
• 1 Community Groups: Sam Payne (Ham & Petersham SOS)
• 1 Housing: Ros Elliott (Richmond Housing Partnership, Area Manager)
• Police: Sgt. Paul Dowsett & PC Clare Taylor(Safer Neighbourhood Team )
• Business rep: Stan Shaw (Ham Parade Traders)
• 1 Ward Councillor: Sir David Williams  

Apologies

• 1 Faith Groups: Brian Willman (St Peter’s Church) & Penny Frost (St Richard’s Church) shared post
• 1 Education: Sam Leir (Head Teacher, Russell School)
• 1 Health: Mitesh Patel (Pharmacare, Back Lane)
• Business rep – Naomi Campbell (Property Manager Ham House)
• 1 Youth: Ben Skelton (Ham Area Youth Lead)
• 1 Social services: Helen McNally (Acting Children’s Centre Managers)
• 1 Library: Kim Hacker (Twickenham, Ham and Whitton area Community Libraries Manager).

Meeting Notes
1.         Maggie Bailey welcomed everyone to the first Ham & Petersham Forum Committee meeting. Everyone present introduced themselves

2. Andrew Beedham gave an update on the Forum application

• The application was considered at Richmond Council Cabinet on 17 October. The Area and Forum was ‘agreed in principle subject to a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to safeguard strategic interests on both sides of the river’. After consultation with DCLG (Department for Communities and Local Government) officers, planning consultants acting for the government and other planners in Ham and Petersham the council were informed on 27 October that the Neighbourhood felt that the request for a MoU was unjustified, should be withdrawn and the application approved. No reply had been received although it had been indicated (by the Director of Environment at Richmond Council in a phone conversation) that the council would amend the boundary to exclude all of the area within the Thames Policy Area. This would leave Ham Lands, the Thames path and Ham House outside the forum area and is totally unacceptable. Legal/ planning advice (same as above) would be sought on what grounds for appeal or other action the Neighbourhood could take, in advance of a formal proposal from the council. The designation report is still in the Forward Plan for consideration at Cabinet on 21 November.
• The committee agreed with Peggy Curtis‘s statement:-

We would like the council to keep to the original boundary as submitted because it is intrinsic to Ham and Petersham. This was seconded by Andy Rogers

3.  Committee positions/ responsibilities

Each role was explained and the following volunteered for the various posts. Each post was proposed and seconded as set out in the table below:-

Post	nominated	Proposed	Seconded	notes
Chair	Maggie Bailey	David Williams	Andrew Beedham
Vice Chair	Justine Glynn	Andrew Beedham	David Williams
Secretary	Sam Payne	Maggie Bailey	Jean Loveland	Support provided by Grey Court School
Treasurer	Jean Loveland	Maggie Bailey	Ross Elliot	Post taken on a temporary basis. Support provided by Grey Court School
Fundraising	Brian Willman	Andrew Beedham	David Williams	Nominated in Brian’s absence
Minutes and record keeping	Peggy Curtis	Jean Loveland	David Williams	Support provided by Grey Court School
Publicity and promotion	Jude Holmes and Cornelia Costeanu	Justine Glynn	Peggy Curtis	Jude, Cornelia and Geoff to meet and discuss publicity strategy
Community groups  liaison
IT web site and social media	Geoff Bond	Justine Glynn	Stan Shaw	Meeting arranged with Justine & Tibor (set up web site) to discuss handover.Maggie to provide social media input from Yan (?) and the school
Service providers liaison	Ross Elliot	Andrew Beedham	Maggie Bailey
Neighbourhood Plan coordinator	Andrew Beedham	Justine Glynn	David Williams	Andy Rogers to deputise
Events coordinator	Decided not to fill this post

 

4.  Publicity and promotion

• The Committee discussed different ways to reach local residents that didn’t attend the Topic Workshop held on 10^th September. Possibly use online surveys (Survey Monkey), social media (Twitter and Facebook) as face to face meetings are time consuming and difficult for busy people to fit in. Set up the online survey to find out what issues are important for local people.
• Suggestion to have a banner/poster prompting the community to give their ideas/comments on what is important for Ham & Petersham. This could be put up outside Grey Court School.

5.  Finance and fundraising, bank account :

• All agreed that a bank account should be set up ASAP. Cheques over £100 should be signed by 2 nominated committee members
• The Forum doesn’t fund everything 100%, but is seed funding to attract money from other sources.
• We should develop a matrix to show the benefit of funding to the number of residents.

6.  Neighbourhood Plan

• The Neighbourhood Plan cannot be anti-development as we must comply with the council’s strategic planning documents (eg Core Strategy) the GLA(Greater London Authority) plans and the national plans. The benefit of a Neighbourhood Plan is the community can guide the right development in the right place for Ham & Petersham. If development happens in Ham & Petersham, the Neighbourhood could unlock funds for the community using Community Infrastructure Levy.

• At the recent ‘brainstorming’ event held at Grey Court School on 10^th September, there were conflicts between many of the ideas from the topic groups.

7.  Local Projects Update

• 18 November  11 to 12.30am SOS are officially launching the ‘Monday Tea Mornings’ with homemade cakes. Yum.

8.  Format/ agenda of next Forum Meeting  –

• The next meeting is on 10 December  at Grey Court School
• Set up a table for the Safer Neighbourhood Team to meet the community.
• We should only have meetings if necessary as there are other more effective ways to engage the community.
• Agenda items:- Update on progress with the Neighbourhood Forum application, local development proposals (Strathmore etc),…

 9.  Diary dates :

 10. AOB :

11. Date of next Committee meeting –

• 2^nd December at 7.30pm  Community Room Ham Library with mince pies