Fern Avenue Residents Group
Minutes of the AGM held at Jesmond Cricket Club on 11th
November 2010
Present. Members of the FAR Group: Calum Bennett, Noel Burton-Roberts, Tessa Burton-Roberts, Amanda Davidson,
Samantha Docherty, Peter Docherty, Suky Drummond, Tony Evans, Grace Hodge, John Hodge,
Les Hodgson, Stephen Hunt, Peter Nicolls, Alison Priestley, Pam Ranson, Martin Starkie,
Chris Sutcliffe, Diana Terode, Murray Waldron, Lucy Wareing. Guests: Anne & Bill
Tavernor (Queens Rd).
Cllrs. Ron Armstrong, Catherine Pagan, Bob
Walker, Peter Breakey. Ward co-ordinator Elizabeth Grace. P.C.s Mike Fawcett
and Richard Dodds community police;
1. Introduction and welcome by the Chair
2.
Apologies for absence.
Barrie Craven,
Paul Cooper, Mike & Linsley de la Hunt, Pat Evans, Mary Hodgson,
Estelle Louw. Ward co-ordinator Susan Johnson.
3. Adoption of the minutes of the last AGM 26th
November 2009.
The minutes were adopted.
4. Election of officers and committee members
All members of the committee who were willing to stand again were
re-elected. Grace Hodge was elected as chair.
Tessa Burton Roberts
was elected onto the committee. (proposed John Hodge, seconded Noel Burton
Roberts)
5. Chair’s report
Over the past year the
committee has met 6 times and discussed a variety of topics. We have aimed to
respond to issues raised by residents at the last AGM and also to any arising
issues that might affect Fern
Avenue.
Covenants: Following
last year’s meeting steps were taken towards setting up covenants. However
early this year it became apparent that the regulations around planning for
HMOs were set to change and possibly negate the need for restrictive covenants
so plans were put on hold. In April this year new planning rules came into
effect which required planning permission for any house to be converted to an
HMO of 3 or more tenants. At this point plans for covenants were dropped as
they no longer seemed necessary.
Traffic:
Volume of traffic in the street was a concern voiced at the AGM. Two years ago
we met with Samantha Dyke the senior assistant engineer in street management to
discuss this and she said that she expected the incoming Holly Avenue Parking Scheme to have a positive impact
on traffic flow in the area. To see if this was the case Samantha agreed to
implement a traffic survey before and after the scheme and to report back the
findings. Earlier this year we received the results of the survey and she
reported that:
Overall traffic flows have remained the same on Fern Avenue during
the morning peak period and have decreased during the evening peak period. The permit
parking scheme has perhaps not decreased traffic travelling through the area as
much as I had hoped but the two way traffic flows on Fern Avenue are not unduly high. I
therefore could not recommend any further measures at present.
Back Lanes: It
was clear from the previous AGM that many residents would still like to have
something done with the back lanes. Over the year we have endeavoured to
explore the possible options and in March we met with some councillors and
Samantha Dyke to discuss this. Her conclusion after the meeting was:
I know we talked about other potential solutions at
the meeting however I do not see ‘Play Streets’ or other forms of access
restrictions as viable options in these locations. These type of restrictions
are designed to remove through traffic however residents requiring access would
be exempt. As such most of the residential traffic currently using the back lanes
would still be entitled to do so and a ‘Play Street’ restriction may mislead
people in to thinking that the street is more controlled than it actually is
and therefore safer as a result. Any form of horizontal chicane would also have
limited success in slowing traffic and would potentially be difficult to
accommodate due to the need to gain access to off street parking areas.
My recommendation would be to look to install traffic
calming, (ie speed bumps) however access to funding would need to be arranged. As I think I
mentioned at the meeting we have limited funding for this and schemes are
therefore prioritised on a worst first basis. The good road safety record in
this area would make it a low priority compared to other similar requests from
other locations in the City. In order to get traffic calming installed an
alternative source of funding to our traffic management budget would need to be
identified, generally this would be the Ward budgets.
The possibility of applying
for a capital grant from the ward was investigated and seemed to be a viable
option if residents are willing to raise some of the capital themselves. At
this point it became necessary to ascertain the level of support for traffic
calming among the residents of the 3 streets that would be affected and to this
end questionnaires were delivered to all households that have access to the 2
back lanes.
Parking Scheme: In July Ron Armstrong and Craig Mordue, head of the Parking Services, arranged a meeting
about the Holly Avenue Parking Scheme to clarify points of enforcement. This
was attended by representatives from
Fern Avenue,
Holly Avenue,
and Queens Road.
Social Event: A
hogroast was held at the cricket club in September and attended by around 70
adults and 30 children. Fascinating facts about past occupants of the street
from census material were again kindly provided by Jane Cooper. A profit of
£139.60 was made. Feedback from the event was positive and another event will
be held next year.
We also initiated two smaller
events for women, a coffee morning/lunch hosted by Janet Nicholls and a
gathering for tea hosted by Grace Hodge and Janet. Apologies to anyone who was
not invited but as the hosts do not yet know everyone on the street these pilot
events were aimed at those residents known to possibly be available during the
week. Out of 22 invited to the tea 11 attended with ages ranging from 30s to
90s. It was thought that more small events would be popular and suggestions for
future events are always welcome.
Information sharing/gathering: Over the year it has been our aim to keep residents
informed of any matters that may have an impact on them or that they may find
useful. The group also aims to include as many residents as possible. To this
end a welcome leaflet has been distributed to all households including, among
other things, useful telephone numbers. Various planning and licensing
applications have also been circulated as well as information about local
events.
Thank you to the councillors
for their support over the year, to the committee and also to Lucy Wareing for
her help with organising the social event.
Finances: 2009/2010
Balance Nov 2009 £1081.40
Room Hire (H-Roast 2009) £60.00
HOGROAST 2010 Receipts £784.90 Expenditure: Room hire £60.00
Hog £480.00
catering
£105.30
HOGROAST
BALANCE £139.60
OTHER EXPENDITURE
NORA: Subscription £12.00
Meeting (L Hodgson) £124.44
Stationery: Envelopes,
cartridges £50.81
TOTAL £1866.30 Total
expenditure £892.55
Balance 23 September 2010 £973.75
6. Report from Jesmond neighbourhood policing
team:
Mike Fawcett gave a general
report re crime and anti-social behaviour.
The statistics for South Jesmond for the period from August show 6
burglaries, 10 incidents of damage to vehicles, 2 thefts from vehicles and 2
thefts of vehicles, 18 incidents of noise. Burglary and criminal damage is down
21% on last year but vehicle crime is up 12%. Operation sunshine has been put
in place to counteract this. Generally the thefts from vehicles are
opportunistic due to valuable items being on display.
There have been 7 arrests
with half of these charged.
Operation Oak is the student
disorder patrol. This consists of 2 PCs on patrol 3 nights a week between 11pm
and 4am (5am on Fridays). This is still running and will be at least until May
2011. Since August 500 warning letters have been issued with 12 of these being
escalated to signed agreements.
Two redeployable cctv cameras
are being placed, one on Grosvenor
Rd and one on the junction of Grosvenor Place and Fern Avenue.
It was asked whether the
impending cuts will affect policing. Mike Fawcett said they have been assured
that front line policing will not be affected.
7. Report from Neighbourhood Watch street representative.
NHW scheme was set up to
include Osborne Avenue,
Holly Avenue,
Fern Avenue
and some of the associated north – south streets. There were six local representatives. CSO
Sherrie Harrison was active in promoting NHW and arranged distribution of
leaflets. There was an intention to have
two or three meetings a year. Sherrie
Harrison was moved back to City Centre duties in August. In terms of actions, the Holly Avenue representative has used
email contacts to collate information on damage to vehicles. There might not be a distinctive role for NHW
in Fern Avenue
as there is an active residents’ group.
Maybe the community policeman is a better focus for quick response and
‘intelligence’.
The police mentioned that having neighbourhood watch
stickers was probably a deterrent to thieves and that being in a NHW scheme
could get a 10% discount on house insurance.
8. Report on current situation with HMOs and
planning rules by Councillor Armstrong.
Prior to 06/04/2010 no
planning permission was needed to convert a family house in to an HMO for up to
6 tenants. After 06/04/2010 planning permission became necessary to convert
houses to any size of HMO. In October the new government changed it back to
prior to 06/04/2010. (Houses being converted for 7 or more tenants have always
needed planning permission and still do.)
The council is aiming to set
up areas where planning permission will again be necessary, Jesmond will be one
of these areas, however this will take about a year to put in place. Ron
assured the meeting that he will keep us informed of progress.
9. Back lane traffic calming.
A questionnaire seeking
residents’ opinions on traffic calming in the back lanes was recently sent to
all residents of Fern and those of Queens
Rd and Holly
Avenue that share the back lanes. There were 20
responses to this questionnaire 70% of which were for installing traffic
calming and 30% of which were against. A total of £1500 was offered by residents
and the treasurer, Paul Cooper, proposed that £300 – 500 from the FARG account
should be added to any fund. This proposal was seconded by Martin Starkie.
The cost of £11 000 for the
speed bumps was questioned and rubber humps mentioned. The councillors stated
that these do not comply with standards and can only be used on private roads.
Ron Armstrong confirmed that
as there have been no accidents in any of the back lanes there would be no
money from the council for traffic calming and that the only possibility of
getting any traffic calming would be a joint approach between residents and
ward funds. Bob Walker said “where there is a will there is a way” and
suggested that if £2000 was raised there may be possibilities of match funding
not necessarily from the ward capital grants. It was also suggested that it may
be possible to get funding from other sources such as Sustrans.
It was asked who would be
responsible for the maintenance of speed humps. Once they are installed they
would become local authority responsibility.
There was some discussion as
to what residents are trying to achieve – less traffic and less speed. The fact
that the bumps on Fern Avenue
send cars down the back lanes was also discussed so if there are humps out
front there should be humps out the back as well.
It was also noted that the
current plans fro speed bumps do not include the top north back lane by Whites
Hotel.
It was acknowledged that the
whole street does not agree on this issue and that some residents are very
against the idea of speed bumps.
The chair read an e-mail
voicing concern as to the safe conduct of children playing in the back lanes.
See Appendix A.
John
Hodge proposed that the
committee, in conjunction with representatives from Holly and Queens,
continues to pursue investigations into the possibility of installing speed
humps in their respective back lanes. This motion was carried 13 votes to 1.
10. Social Events: It was discussed that while the hogroast is popular and easy to
organise it could be seen as exclusive and other options could be explored. The
general feeling of the meeting was to continue with the hogroast.
Suggestions for smaller types
of social event were encouraged.
11. Re-evaluation
of major concerns of members/residents. The chair requested suggestions from members as to what
they felt the group could do next year.
Storm drains.
It was noted that two at the junction of Fern and Grosvenor are blocked.
Catherine Pagan said she would investigate and get this sorted.
Whites Hotel: Antisocial
behaviour from patrons of Bar Blanc is still
seen as an issue. The corner of the garden nearest Fern Avenue is still being used and the
back lane is frequently used as a toilet. It was noted that the noise is worse
on nights when no bouncers are working and especially bad in the summer. The
secretary agreed to e-mail Brian the manager and Catherine Pagan agreed to
approach licensing. Residents were encouraged to log days and times of
incidents and to call the police.
Jesmond Hotel. It
was noted that they are applying to have the restrictions on the use of their
outdoor space lifted.
Posters in windows. A concern was raised about the unsightliness of large posters in house
windows. It was confirmed that nothing can be done about this unless they are
obscene.
12. Any other business
Rubbish
collections. A resident had heard that Newcastle
may be moving to 2 weekly rubbish collection, The councillors knew nothing of
this.
Osborne Road garage site. Definitely has
permission for a shop but has 3 years before the planning expires. All else was
confirmed to be rumour. (it has since
been confirmed that Waitrose will be taking the site)
Lost
property. A pair of orange handled scissors, a ladle and a mixing bowl have
been left after the social events. If these belong to you please collect from
number 43. If not they will be sent to charity.
Appendix A
Having lived here for 33 years I am aware that there
have always been drivers going too fast down the lane (even before students). I
am assuming that residents looking for traffic calming are mostly those who
have children now playing in the lane.
A few weeks ago I came round the corner into the lane
- slowly as it is a blind spot. A group of children were playing close to the
end (or beginning?) of the lane. Instead of moving out of the way of the car
safely and promptly this was done very slowly and one boy then jumped out in
front of my car, jumping up and down and making fun of being there. A big laugh
from his friends.
This is very dangerous behaviour - if I had started
to accelerate at that point, even slowly, the child could have been run over. I
would of course have been blamed and not the badly behaved child who was doing
something very dangerous to impress his friends. There is not much point in
putting in traffic calmers if children do not behave safely in the lane.
A week before this incident 3 boys from the same group
had walked out in front of my car in Fern Avenue, laughing and obviously
thinking it was a bit cool, one of them making unpleasant gestures when I
stopped and told them it was dangerous to walk out into the street without
looking and waiting. I told the boys that if I knew who their parents were
I would have let them know about this behaviour. One boy was wearing
a yellow and brown uniform.
Traffic calmers serve no purpose if children do not
behave sensibly and put themselves at risk, exuberance and fun is one thing -
putting me (and any other driver) and themselves at risk is quite another.
Could you please pass this information on at the FAR
meeting?