GENERAL MEETING - MINUTES
Bowburn & Parkhill Community Partnership - Charity Number 1112151
Tuesday 16 October 2007. From 6.30pm to 9.00pm
K Barber (7pm), W Bates, M Bell, J Blackburn, J Blakey, C Brown, K Calvert, S Colquhoun, R Cowen,
P Dawe, N Dixon, A Gregory, B Gregory, K Griffiths, K Haigh, R Jackson, J Kane, R Millerchip, S Millerchip S Raine,
V Richardson, Maggie Robinson, Maureen Robinson, S Thompson, S Walworth, D Whittaker, A Wilson, J Wilson
In Attendance: B Cockburn, G Marsden, M Ridley, P Sinclair
Present:: 1. Apologies for absence: J Anson, M Dee, A Richardson, S Robinson, I Hunter Smart M Syer, G Stoker, R Walsh
2. Police: Cassop No crime reported; Parkhill No crime reported, Bowburn 1 assault, 1 attempted theft, 1 racially
aggravated public order offence, 2 criminal damage. Off licences are visited about youth and alcohol problems.
PC Cockburn invited any queries.
Member: What is the authority of the Community Beat officers?
PC: None, but in future they may have some authority. They are a useful deterrent against anti-social behaviour.
Member: Cars are coming into the area and causing a problem.
PC: Was unaware of that and would check up on it.
Member: Children are causing problems in the Haslam development.
PC: Community Wardens are aware of this problem. Antisocial Behaviour Acceptance notices are being considered.
Member: What form of warning can you give to the children?
PC: Depending on the offence, the age of responsibility is 10 years. Parents are notified in front of the children.
There is a scheme run in conjunction with the Council where council tenants can lose their house if they are repeat
offenders, and there is an antisocial behaviour officer, Gary Jackson, who deals with none council house tenants.
It was said that an incident was reported to the police from the football coaches, which the police did not respond to.
PC: Would check the log. However if there was an ongoing incident another PC should come from a different area.
Member: Fencing was damaged in OQ which could allow animals to escape, but in this case someone did attend.
Member: Asked how often the Community Officers are in Bowburn.
PC They work the same 2 weekly shift pattern as he did ie 7 days on, 2 off, 3 on, 2 off.
Member: Was pleased to see that the police have been proactive in clearing bonfires in Prince Charles Avenue.
PC: The police work with Paul Parker, the neighbourhood warden, who has made assurances to remove bonfire
material.
Member: Queried ringing the police to inform when residents are away on holiday.
PC: Would prefer to be informed. Ring 0845 number and ask for the information to be passed onto the local beat
officer
Member: Concerns were expressed that alcohol was being supplied to under 18’s at Parkhill.
PC: Local shop owners have been warned, and the Partnership was reminded of the Over 21 scheme that is in
operation.
The chair thanked PC Cockburn for attending the meeting.
3. Masterplan: Masterplan Updates – CDO and Project Leaders
Highways: J Richardson, Director of Environment attended to discuss a scheme for the Unmade Roads.
A688 Wheatley Hill Link Road: Completion of the scheme is expected in September 2008.
Western Spine Road: An appraisal is necessary to see how the bypass would stand against currently proposed
minor schemes elsewhere in the country before it could be offered a place in any future LTP programme. Securing a
place in the minor schemes programme is difficult due to available funding under LTP alone. The scheme is therefore
not guaranteed a place in LTP3 unless the development were to pay for it.
Safe Crossing Points: A request for a refuge/island crossing at the library will be investigated in due course.
Pedestrian facilities: At Parkhill the road will become a single carriageway on the Coxhoe side of the new
roundabout. A traffic island will be in place at the bus stop.
At Bowburn a light traffic control system with a pedestrian phase has been requested as part of a proposed
supermarket development at the Hare & Greyhound PH.
Transport to employment: Dawn Watson, Accessible Planning, is aware of an application for 500, 000 sq ft office
development which will have an effect on transport to employment issues in the future. She is available for contact.
Mini-roundabouts to improve traffic flow on A177: The three locations of the Jet filling station, Bede Terrace, and the
Cooperage PH are not suitable for mini-roundabouts on road safety grounds.
Road/Rail Interchange at Tursdale: County Durham MPs and the MEP have given their support to the scheme.
1Parkhill: Various funding applications are being drafted ready for submission.
Heritage Room: No progress.
Community & Youth Centres: (JA) There are discussions with S Hawley regarding the Centres’ priorities.
Church: (JA) Met with Maureen Robinson to discuss the Church re-build. Funding searches have been carried out
and a draft application to the Bowburn & Parkhill Community Partnership is in hand. Next meeting is 19 October.
Maureen brought a draft set of plans for the Worship Centre to this meeting.
Environment: (JA) Attended the Consultation Event (URRI) on 10 October to display the proposed scheme for
Durham Road. The display is in the Community Centre plus questionnaires. There is also a small display showing
the proposed schemes for Romaine Square and the Co-op area.
Unadopted Roads: J Richardson, Director of Environment, explored the possibility of residents themselves funding
the road improvements. This was based on the difficulty in obtaining appropriate grants or funds from other sources,
as these had been extensively explored by residents, Durham County Council Members, MPs and MEPs.
It would mean lending money to residents with the possibility of no repayment until the sale of the property by some
form of charge being placed on it i.e. an equity share loan which would be repaid on future sale of the property.
Fund raising events are taking place: Bingo each week on Thursday at 7pm, in The Oak Tree PH: Race Night in the
Hare & Greyhound 2 November, 8pm. Sponsor a horse for £2 and win a prize. York Trip, 10 November.
A member informed the group that such a scheme had been tried in the past but needed 100% uptake.
However J Richardson stated that there is the possibility of implementing the scheme if there is non-compliance.
Park Project: There has been a meeting between City officials and representatives from PARC to progress the
scheme so that it is ready to go to planning in December; discuss funding and publicity.
A member asked about match funding for the Park. It was said to be approximately £52th.
Centenary – Bowburn School: The large group have split into interest sub-groups to meet together at various times:
History links - time-line; Old time music hall: School reunion; Beamish activity; Childhood games and pastimes
Harvest Festival; Anniversary - children say piece of poetry; Grand Finale Party Day. The first meeting for the
Harvest Festival is 14 November 4pm – contact the school or Janet to find out when the other groups are meeting.
4. Minutes of last General meeting and matters arising: 18 September 2007:
The minutes were amended so that Cllr. Marsden’s name did not appear in both “Attendance” and “Apologies”.
When this was corrected, the minutes were proposed as a true record by R Cowen and seconded by N Dixon, and
the meeting agreed them unanimously.
Matter Arising:
Item 6: Letter to B Spears saying that in light of assurances given for Fig 5 the Partnership were “happy to withdraw
any implication of deceit in our letter”.
B Spears will attend the Partnership meeting on 20 November as he had other commitments on October.
Item 10: Application forms are available for nominations to fill a vacancy on the trustees committee.
Item 11 Tail upon End Lane site. “The city Council has considered the above application and it has been resolved to
grant planning permission subject to conditions.”
It was asked why the Park application was turned down by the Environment Agency without conditions when the Tail
upon End site was passed with conditions.
Member: The Tail upon End site is being looked into by NW.
Member: The Environment Agency has tightened up on permissions because of the flooding in the summer.
It was asked what the conditions were.
Member: One of them was that none of the houses could be occupied until the foul and fresh water drainage
problems were resolved.
Member: The proposed development framework has flooding as an issue. Is it a condition precedent before the
builders start? If not it would suggest slackness as the problem should be resolved before the build commences.
Member: Had heard that negotiations have taken place to divert storm water to Whitewell Beck.
Member: But Tail upon End site is a sewerage problem. Because of this has the Horton Crescent site been taken into
consideration?
Member: The fact is that the Park was held back but the Tail upon End site had gone through.
2It was agreed to write a letter to the City Council asking what the conditions are and why the Park has been refused
and Tail upon End Lane had been allowed with conditions. (Janet)
9. Community Chest: It was decided to bring this item forward.
There was one application from the Friends of Bowburn Infant School to ‘create a school garden’ asking for funding
of £5000 out of a total cost of £15 000. The group submitted the necessary quotations.
J Blackburn, P Dawe, J Blakey and A Wilson declared an interest in the application.
R Millerchip, K Haigh, and P Sinclair on behalf of J Anson presented the application. R Millerchip and J Anson
recommended the application to the meeting as it was available to the wider community; K Haigh agreed the scheme
was a worthwhile expenditure but had reservations about the application. Firstly the school would be the beneficiary
and had already been given a grant of £5000; secondly was this group separate from the school and therefore
eligible to apply?
An in-depth discussion included: this was a roundabout way of getting a second five thousand pounds; was this
group set up for this application; does the garden require planning permission; querying if it is accessible to the whole
community; the garden could encourage anti-social behaviour; anything that can be done for children is a good thing.
Friends of the School replied: the garden would be open after school; the group was set up in the Summer term 07.
Advice was given that vandalism can be expensive to repair, and perhaps visiting times should be supervised.
The Chair asked members to vote ‘Yes’ if they were for the application and ‘No’ if they were not.
After the vote of eligible members the application for funding was granted by a majority of 10 votes to 7 votes.
Members stated that: There is a need to be satisfied that it is an independent group and the Partnership was not
acting ultra vires, going beyond their powers, in granting that application; the group needs to be more organised and
open a bank account.
5. Report - Trustees’ meeting: 25 September 2007:
It was agreed to open a second bank account with Unity Bank. It was also decided to open a Northern Rock account
by depositing £1.00 to support the bank, at the suggestion of an outside body.
6. Correspondence:
Email from Parish Council thanking the Partnership for £5000 towards the costs of landscaping work at the group
garage site in Bowburn.
Email from J Anson with information from the County Council about National Tree Week.
Suggestions were put forward for possible areas to plant trees.
7. Items of Any Other Business: The Co-op area.
8. Treasurer’s Report: Expenditure was £8600 for the Community Chest and £24 for Room Hire leaving a balance
of £5304.60.
10. Reports and matters arising:
Regeneration Working Group– plus questions for next meeting:
Figure 5 will be amended and a full explanation will be added. B Spears will attend the next Trustees meeting to
discuss. There are 6 apprentices starting new trades. B Spears had stated that Durham City Council would not
proceed with a judicial review process if the judicial review decision went against the district councils of Shrewsbury
and Congleton.
Since the Regeneration Working Group meeting it had been learnt that the decision had gone against Shrewsbury
and Congleton. However the judge has given the right to appeal.
Walkabout: There is no date to tarmac Griffiths Court; A watching brief will be kept on the deterioration of the road in
Prince Charles Ave; Wagon drivers damaging kerbstones in Philip will be reminded to avoid them in future; Site
vehicles are to be deterred from driving across the field between Prince Charles Ave. and Horton Crescent, and the
investigatory holes in Prince Charles need backfilling. Deterioration of the walkway and lights are off in David
Terrace, Three Rivers is said to be ultimately responsible for reporting youth nuisance on the bungalows.
Cape Public Enquiry: Awaiting outcome.
Tail-upon-End Lane Site: See Item 4.
3Parish Council: PC report as for Partnership; The customary Code of Conduct was accepted with the amendment
that gifts or hospitality of £5 should be registered whether an offer or not had been accepted; The Water Authority
has not responded regarding the flooding at the library; Residents in Bow/Burn Street have been asked to volunteer
to tidy the Maze; The Miner’s Coal Wagon site will be finished by the end of the year; The Footpath Scrutiny is a long
process as all farmers have to agree to proposals; £5000 has been granted from the Community Chest to upgrade
the garage site next to the Doctor’s Surgery; Work on the old grave stones will starts next month at a cost to the
Parish; The accounts were agreed. Next meetings are 17 October and 21 November at 7.00pm.
A member asked about the reason for the Parish paying for the repair of old headstones. If relations cannot be found
the payment is made by the Parish. (See September Minutes)
Regional Spatial Strategy (RSS): No change, but with the objections lodged by the City and County Councils
(supported by the MP and MEP) there may be a further period of consultation.
Noticeboard: The noticeboard in Prince Charles Avenue has been given a licence and the board at the library should
be given permission.
Quarry Liaison Committee: No development.
LSP: Meetings have been held regarding the Unitary Council, Mental Health Week, and Cultural Award.
12 Villages Representative: Ethel Cummings has won a regional award for Citizen of the Year. The AGM is held on
29 October at Bearpark.
11. Group Noticeboard:
Banner: There have been two outings, Houghton and Heworth, both of which were very good. The next and final
outing for this year is the Remembrance Sunday service on 11 November in the Methodist Chapel.
BVC: The next issue of the Interchange is the beginning of December and articles should be submitted by 15
November.
Football Teams: There are 13 junior teams in the Durham School Sports Partnership, and Bowburn are top of the
league. Winter training is taking place at various venues. Each incident of dog fouling is reported to the FA.
Members were concerned that the FA could stop play on health and safety grounds; that signs about dog fouling
should be more visible.
History: The AGM has taken place. A bid to the Community Chest has been drafted for the Heritage Room.
Website: No report
Xmas Event: Tickets are available, at £7.50, for the Big Band Dance night on 7 December from Janet and the
Community Centre.
12. Any Other Business: A member is tired of seeing rubbish left outside the Co-op. Fines would be given out if it
was in the City, and the same should happen in Bowburn.
Unfortunately fines are only given if the deed is seen by the police or an environmental officer.
13. Date and Time of Meetings: General Meetings are held on the third Tuesday of each month.
Next meeting is on 20 November 2007 at 6.30pm
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