New Parklands Residents Association -
Chairman’s Report
Good evening and thank you for attending our 2009 AGM. It has been a busy year for the Committee and for me a very rewarding year. I can really recommend joining the Residents Association committee if you want to get to know your neighbours and make new friends.
The New Parklands Residents Association is, amongst other things, constituted to do the following:
a) To promote all members rights and interests and the maintenance and improvement of housing conditions, amenities and the environment.
b) To consult and negotiate with Wealden District Council
and/or other statutory or voluntary organisations/Authorities for the
furtherance of our aims.
c) To promote Social activities for all members.
Since the current committee have been in position we have tried to fulfil those requirements as much as possible and that is what I am going to report on tonight. At the 2008 AGM the previous committee under the chairmanship of Tony Godden stood down and only Ellie Boultbee and Bill Miller wanted to stand for re-election. Charlotte Savage and I felt that although we already had quite a few commitments it would be a shame if the Association had to close through a lack of committee members and so we both volunteered to join the committee because there was literally no-one else prepared to do it. I would like to list the committee’s achievements over the last 12 months based on the three points of our constitution.
To
promote all members rights and interests and the maintenance and improvement of
housing conditions, amenities and the environment.
We have bought and installed the benches and picnic table in the play area. We also got as a second dustbin installed in the play area, which the Parish council pays the District council to empty, and we bought and fitted new play area information signs. We have also got the various bodies to put up the yellow traffic safety signs each summer and dog hygiene signs.
We have done regular litter clean up days around the estate and organised play area maintenance days where we have repaired equipment, such as the big swing and the gate, and done a general tidy up of the play area.
We have now raised over £20 000.00 for play area improvements and are well on our way to raising a further £54 000.00. Ellie Boultbee has been mainly responsible for play area plans and funding and will do a play area report later this evening with more details.
We have built up relationships with people
at
We have also established an excellent relationship with PCSO Katie Breeds and have got a good increase in police presence and better response from the police to calls. I don’t have any hard evidence but I think that there’s definitely been a drop in anti-social behaviour as a result. PCSO Breeds has been a regular at our meetings and has been very supportive in many ways. The Police have also provided significant funding for our play area plans.
To
consult and negotiate with Wealden District Council and/or other statutory or
voluntary organisations/Authorities for the furtherance of our aims.
Earlier in the year Maresfield Parish
Council decided to turn the streetlights off for part of the night. This caused
a great deal of bad feeling with residents and of their own accord Sharon and
Sheila Scott got up a petition to get it reversed. When the committee realised
how unhappy residents were we organised a public meeting at
Members of the committee have attended and represented Parklands at Maresfield PC, Wealden Residents Action Group and other meetings. Attending these meetings can be the hardest part of the committee member’s job. Bill Miller has done most of the liaison with WRAG for us.
To
promote Social activities for all members.
We have organised a number of social activities in the past year and have used them to help raise money too. We had the children’s Halloween party last October, the Jumble Sale in April, the Village Fete in May and the Teddy Bears picnic in June. In July will be the sponsored run around Parklands and in August we will be holding the Grand Summer Party for all residents with entertainment for the kids and food, drink and music for the adults. We will also be having a kids Christmas party in December. These activities have all been very successful, the jumble sale and fete raised just under £500.00, but sometimes disappointingly supported by residents. A large part of these activities has been to build community links with other groups such as Stepping Stones, the Mother and Baby group, the church and the school. Charlotte Savage has had responsibility for the fundraising and social event organising.
In order to make ourselves known to residents we have done three newsletters, two consultations and many, many poster and leaflet campaigns. To appear as professional as possible we have designed an association logo and letterhead which will feature on all our publications in future. We have also set up a website to promote our activities, show what we are doing and provide links to a number of useful websites for the community, such as the police, Wealden Council, transport, school, social services and many others
As a committee we are proud of what we have achieved in the last year and the foundations we have laid for our future activities but we feel there is more to be done. The current committee, with the exception of Bill, all have small children and so naturally that is where our focus lies but we would like the association to do more. For instance it would be good to help some of the older members of our community and maybe those who are vulnerable for one reason or another. To do that we need volunteers who can come up with the plans and carry them forward so please think about standing for the committee.
At this point I’d like to thank the people
who have been regulars at our monthly meetings and have also helped out with
the activities. These include, Sheila Scott,