MINUTES_- Annual General Meeting
Bowburn & Parkhill Community Partnership – Charity Number 1112151
Tuesday 17 May 2011. From 6.30pm to 7.00pm
Present: M Bell, J Blackburn, J Blakey, J Geyer, K Haigh, D Hindshaw, John Kane, G Kitson, S Raine,
A Richardson, W Rumney, J Sudder, S Sudder, M Syer, S Thompson, R Walsh, C Zand
In Attendance: J Anson, PC Cockburn, M Ridley (Chair)
1. Apologies for absence: S Walworth, M Williams
R Cowen, S Featherstone, K Griffiths, D Paget, M Robinson, S Robinson, J Shields,
2. Minutes of last Annual General Meeting 18 May 2010:
The minutes were taken as a true record by M Syer and K Haigh, and the meeting agreed them unanimously.
3. Chair’s Annual Report: The Chair welcomed everyone to the Annual General Meeting for 2011.
Over the past year the remaining monies from the Regeneration Fund has been made available by Durham County
Council, apart from a sum of £100,000 spent on demolition and clearance by the former City Council which we will
not be getting back. This means that the refurbishment of the Community Centre can continue and the
Environment projects can now be decided.
The Partnership has taken part in the many and varied consultations from County, commented on planning
applications, and received a report from the Area Action Partnership.
The Digital Democracy Group and Northumbrian Water have contributed presentations to the meetings which gave
members the opportunity to ask questions.
Thanks were extended to those on the committee – past and present; to the locally elected members for their
support; the Parish Council for their information; the advice and support from Julie Anson and the County Council.
Thanks were also given to PC Cockburn for his attendance at the meetings.
In the future the Partnership hopes to include projects which could come from the Masterplan, The Parish Plan, the
AAP or New Schemes to promote Bowburn within the village and further afield, and we would like to encourage
businesses to back projects channelled through the Partnership.
4. Project groups: The Secretary and project leaders presented the annual updates:
Highways Group: Extra bollards were put on Durham Road to prevent unwanted parking on the new paving.
A Village sign on the C12a at Heugh Hall Farm was funded through the locally elected members.
The digitised footpath map is complete and shows the correct line for Footpath 29. The Partnership bought 2
Speedwatch Units on behalf of the AAP area, and funding for the minibus driver training has been vired into ICT
training.
The entrance to the park from the C12a has been lit through elected members monies. As and when funding is
available more lights will be installed along this road up to the junction for the Hallgarth Estate.
This proposed lighting has enabled a speed limit of 40mph to be passed on the C12a from Heugh Hall Farm.
The Limestone Linx cycle way was approved bringing safe cycling into Parkhill and a link in Bowburn to produce a
cycle-to-work route could be possible in the coming year.
Parkhill: We have had a very quiet year at Parkhill, with no projects underway. The play areas continue to be
successful and in general well looked after by the youngsters on the estate. Any problems and they inform me
immediately, usually a bolt broken loose or the matting lifting in certain places. This enables us to have it rectified
before it becomes a major problem.
We have a number of new proposals to look at the way forward, which will be decided over the coming months.
Community Centre: The last twelve months have been very encouraging for the Centre which has been
modernised. The boilers have been renewed and all the elements have been replaced. New windows and doors
have been fitted to rooms that have not been updated before. Most rooms have been decorated and floor coverings
replaced. A new IT suite has been formed at the front of the Centre, and a new History Room has been created
behind the stage. The car parks have been re-surfaced. We are obtaining prices for the Servery, heaters to the
Lounge, and a new covering for the roof. The final positive point – the Centre has been shortlisted to host a film
production in July which should raise the profile of the building. Thanks were extended to everyone who has been
part of the transformation of the Centre.
Youth: With the completion of the Access Project during the previous year, and a formal "re-opening" on 18th
January 2010, the last phase of improvements to the youth club building was the installation of a new central
heating boiler. Thanks to funding from the Sherburn House Charity, the Big Lottery, Bowburn & Parkhill Community
Partnership and Durham County Council, this was achieved in the summer of 2010. Although a full year has not yet
passed since then, meter readings make it clear that there have already been considerable savings in energy costs,
despite severe winter weather, and the youth workers and young people have reported that the building has been
extremely comfortable throughout that period.The possibility of a new problem with the building, in the sports hall roof, has recently been identified. So another,
unexpected building project may need to be considered in the near future.
The next major planned premises project is to tackle the area around the outside of the building. Thanks to a grant
from the AAP's Small Grants Fund, the first phase of this will be worked out in detail during this summer term and
completed during the summer holidays (2011).
Meanwhile youth work continues to include three evening sessions a week, including use of the refurbished weights
training room and of the IT room. Sessions with young people not in education, employment or training also
continue and are well attended. Experiments with Friday evening and Saturday afternoon sessions achieved very
low take-up and these have been discontinued for the time being. All targets, in terms of the number of young
people "reached", the number of "successful outcomes" and the number of "accreditations", were hit last year.
Holiday outings and activities have also been very successful, thanks to additional funding, mainly from Durham
County Council. While there are doubts about the availability of such funding in the coming year, the number of
youth workers and sessions will not be hit by the next round of cuts, and achievement targets remain the same as
for last year.
The Charity's next AGM will be held on Wednesday 7th September. New volunteers are very much needed, to join
the management committee
Park: The drainage and relaying of the football area and playing field has now been completed and is due to be re-
opened on 10 July. The final phase has been the consultation about the outdoor gym. The feedback has been
discussed and an agreed plan will be brought back to the Partnership. Considering that the plans have been scaled
down in the last few years, everyone concerned has contributed to a first class facility.
Environment: Lighting in Newburn Avenue has been upgraded and 2 New lighting columns have been erected in
the cul-de-sacs in Parkhill by funding from the Area Action Partnership.
The footpath in Parkhill should be completed in the near future.
Now that funding is available, the footpath improvements and the Unadopted Roads project can be identified and
taken forward.
History:
The History Society has had a pretty quiet year to date with the work going on to activate the History room. We are
now up and running and have installed various software suites for archiving and other tasks. We still have a lot to
do to get all the photos and information that is scattered about the members’ homes on to the society’s computers.
We need to obtain a map cupboard to store the maps we have. We hope to attract speakers and arrange trips now
that we are more settled. We still have quite a bit of work to do to finish the room for visitors to come but all are still
welcome whilst this is happening.
Bowburn Youth Football Club
120 children are registered with the club with 100 playing competitive football each week. Ages range from U8s to
U15s. The Under 18's no longer play – due to work and college commitments, but many play for The Cooperage
FC. And the Under 11's Tigers no longer play due to no Coach and a lack of children; but they can train every
week. We are training on the pitch, and are planning an Open Day on the 10 July 2011 with the Ohio Gala Band.
All children have received new kits and winter coats, and all teams are arranging a day out for themselves. The
Under 10's attended a tournament at Butlins in Skegness which they enjoyed.
We continue to work with the Junior school and our Coaches last year helped them win the cup and this year to
become runners-up in the cup and winning the league. We have held several events in the Community Centre
attended by people from the club and the community.
The Club would like to thank everyone in the village for their continued support – from businesses and parents to
the wider community; also the Coaches and Committee – without which we would not have a club.
5. Statement of Financial Affairs: The treasurer presented the independently examined accounts from the CVS and
reported that the opening balance of £5023.98 was made up of about half and half restricted funds and unrestricted.
This financial year restricted funds are ten times as great and unrestricted funds remain almost the same with a
quarter of those funds coming from the quarterly quizzes. The 37p of restricted funds will be transferred to
unrestricted funds. The report was approved by the members present.
6. Election of Officers: The election of the following officials was agreed by the members:
Chair - Richard Walsh Vice Chair - Richard Cowen
Secretary - Janet Blackburn Treasurer - Mike Syer
7. Election of Trustees: The following members were elected as trustees:
W Bates, M Bell, J Blakey, K Griffiths, K Haigh, G Kitson, S Raine, S Walworth
8. Close of AGM: The chair closed the AGM and thanked members for attending.