Havant Civic Society
Minutes of Committee Meeting 19:00 Thursday 15th November 2012
Present: Tim Dawes, Carole Nash, Beryl Francis, Ray Cantwell, Jim Davis, David Smith, Annette Harley, Michael Blanch
Apologies were received from Bill Woods
Minutes of last meeting were approved (taken as read after earlier distribution)
Matters Arising
Council officers have been invited to meetings, but none has yet attended – we should repeat a request for attendance (CN). Elected councillors with responsibility for Planning and Regeneration or representing St Faith’s should also be invited (CN). Rather than pursue formation of a community trust, we should contact St Faith’s Church PCC asking for informal discussion with the Civic Society at their convenience (CN). Portsmouth Water Company has not yet been approached about the status of their pumping station – this should be done (CN). John Townsend of HBC should be asked about including the White Hart and War Memorial on the local list (CN).
Correspondence
Email correspondence with HBC had been circulated. Meticulously and systematically following links to HBC’s documents had proved daunting; some are excessively long (67 pages) and refer to further material. St Faith’s Conservation Area Appraisal and Management Plan includes a study by Forum Heritage Services published in 2007 and now adopted. Reference was made to HBC’s draft Allocations Plan for public consultation. It was agreed that the Civic Society should comment on this.
Formal Response to East Street Consultation Findings
There has been some acknowledgement by HBC of public hostility to aspects of their proposal; need for community buildings is now mentioned and there is no further reference made to moving the War Memorial or “shared space”. However, East Street is still scheduled for an unfeasibly large number of houses. The housing allocation was discussed at length, the conclusion being that, with the resources available, we can only to challenge those in St Faith’s, but in the longer term could support other areas on a case by case basis. Lack of infrastructure to sustain the proposed new housing is worrying. The East Street Consultation and housing allocation plan are closely related matters and would best tackled at a Society meeting (open to the public). It is vital that we have genuine mixed use alternatives to HBC’s proposals. Organisation of this meeting and supporting information will be undertaken by TD. AH will arrange material to include notice of the open meeting, membership application and other appropriate items to form a newsletter – this will be sent to DS for inclusion in the website. TD will arrange for printing of notices for hand-delivery throughout St Faith’s.
Newsletter
Discussed above
Website Maintenance
DS described developments. More material will be included as it is provided to him, specifically, design of membership form and newsletter. Impersonal contact emails (of type secretary@havantcivicsociety) can be included. It was agreed that minutes of meeting should be made available.
Finance
RC reported on progress with opening a bank account at Lloyds TSB. Annual membership fees of £4 per person, £6 family, £1 unwaged and £20 corporate were suggested and agreed. When bank account details are available transfers in will be possible, meanwhile cash payments will be taken.
Meeting with David Willetts
This has been scheduled for December 14th. The society will be represented by TD, DS, JD and CN
Havant Civic Society 