MINUTES OF A GENERAL MEETING HELD AT THE BOWLS
CLUB ON MONDAY 10th FEBRUARY
2020 AT 7.15PM.
PRESENT
Tom King (Ch), and thirty five members, including TDC Cllr
Ash Ashbee-Welch, WTC Cllr Joanna Cornford.
Also present Tim Green and Penny Wells, prospective candidates for the
forthcoming Westgate Town Council election.
APOLOGIES
Bob Loxley.
CHAIRMAN'S REPORT
1) General Meetings. Tom informed members that the monthly
meetings would continue, alternating between Westbrook Bowls Club and Christ
Church URC. Due to various commitments the second Monday was difficult for a
number of committee members, and Tom asked the meeting if the first Monday in
the month would be acceptable. This was
agreed.
2) Information for Members. The notice board near “Krusty Kobbs”, and the
window of Tescos Westbrook will be available for notices of meetings etc.
3) Constitution. This requires updating and clarifying. Some of the previous committee had been
looking at this and Don Eacott had supplied a suggested revised text for
consideration.
4) Membership Lists. Information is awaited.
5) New Businesses in
Westgate. Two have opened, a Pizza shop,
and “The Little Brown Fairy Cake”.
6) WTC Bye-election. The two candidates had both come to the meeting
to address members, unfortunately at this point Tim Green who is in the fire
service received a call out and had to leave.
Penny Wells told the meeting that she had lived in the area since the
1980s and had been involved in the community in many ways and hopes to help
look after Westgate especially in view of the forthcoming development.
MINUTES OF THE LAST MEETING
The minutes of the last general meeting, (14/10/19),
which had been circulated, were agreed as a correct record on a proposal by
James Brazier sec. by Don Eacott, and signed.
The minutes of the EGM held on the 13th
January 2020, also circulated, were agreed as a correct record on a proposal by
Derek Smith sec. by Stephanie Sutton, and signed.
REPORTS Cllrs, PCSOs, WARDEN'S:
WTC Cllr Joanna Cornford:
1) Advertisements in the new WTC magazine. Cllr Cornford pointed out that these had not
been “nicked” from the Record magazine.
TDC Cllr Ash Ashbee-Welch:
1) Tree Project on Council Land. TDC has managed to win a bid for a large amount
for an urban tree project for Isle of Thanet trees. The funding is matched by the airport owners
and voluntary labour matchfunding. There
will be 1,200 trees in all. Help and
advice will be given by Luke Evans, (Thanet Forestry Community School), and
Peter Hasted. Trees will be planted in
Dane Park, Dane Valley Green, (which will help prevent travellers from
camping), the Sunken Gardens and George V Green. This will hel;p raise Thanet’s tree canopy
coverage which is now only 4%, (London is 29%).
2) George V Avenue. KCC is to build a large soakaway which is to
prevent flooding, after which all the green will be put back and trees planted.
KCC Warden Laura Bungard: (Report sent in and read
by the chair):
1) Scams. Golden Rule do not have a conversation or
agree to work being done by anyone who calls at the door, recently offers to
clear gutters or do odd jobs have been unsatisfactory.
2) TDC Lorries, Pot Holes and
Drains. Problems with these are being
chased up.
3) Contact.
Laura may be contacted by email laurabungard@kent.gov.uk or by phone 07969 583922,
and her details are held at the Town Council Offices.
Police Messages (by email):
1) Scam. Calls received supposedly from BT or Open
Reach asking to add a program to your computer to help it work faster. Disregard this.
2) Scam. Spurious drain/sewer unblocker calls,
claiming to be from the local council and asks for bank card and pin to pay for
the work. Do not get involved.
PLANNING
1) 30, Bowes Avenue. Application for single storey rear extension.
2) 2/74, St Mildred’s
Road. Application for removal of
chimney.
3) Budget Beaters, Station
Road. Application for change of
frontage. This is to be called in.
4) 5, Bowes Avenue. Application
for single storey front side and rear extension.
5) 3, Westcliff Road.
Application for single storey rear extension.
6) Paul’s Bar. Retrospective application for external
shelter.
7) Springfield. Application for change of use from care home
to five bedroom detached dwelling.
8) Royal Sea Bathing
Hospital. Application to build two metre
boundary wall following demolition of old wall.
TREASURER'S REPORT (Jane)
Jane reported that the paperwork had been received,
and the accounts are being audited as arranged by the previous treasurer.
The bank account stands at £4,420. The necessary forms have been sent to the
bank for change of name of treasurer.
Expenses had included £960 for postage etc. and the meeting
at The Swan, and payment for entries in three editions of the WTC magazines
totalling £1,400. The deficit for the
year had been £775, in spite of refunds from the electricity company which were
owed.
In answer to a question Jane confirmed that the
subscriptions would continue as before, and may be paid by direct debit if
convenient.
Jane undertook to give a brief report at each
general meeting for transparency regarding the state of the account and ins and
outs of the month.
EDITOR & PRESS REPORT
Ash reported that she was in touch with Emma Dublin
of “Westgate Matters” for help in setting up a facebook page for the W&WRA,
it would be an outward only page.
Minutes are to be only available for W&WRA and
not available to the general public or on other websites.
The Record magazine used to pay for itself with the
advertisement fees, and it has been relatively costly, @£350/month, to use
pages in the WTC magazine. Ash had
contacted Adam Robson and as a gesture of goodwill two pages have been made
available for the next edition free of charge.
It is hoped to have the “Record” magazine up and running as soon as possible.
The postal address will remain at St Augustines for
correspondence.
Jane asked that any road stewards who had copies of
their rounds supply these in order to help to help with delivery of magazines
and subscription collection. Jacquie
said she had hard copies of these she could supply.
SOCIAL REPORT
A suggestion to hold a VE Day Lunch in place of the
New Year Lunch was put to members for feedback.
The idea appeared to be received favourably.
ANY OTHER BUSINESS
1) Travellers’ Sites. Chris Wyer enquired if the council had been
able to allocate sites. Cllr Ash said
there is a working party for this, which was a difficult problem to solve and
some sites had been refused and it was back to review.
2) Tennis Courts by St Mildred’s
Bay. Don Eacott pointed out that there
was no fence round the lower pair of courts, and asked if this could be
remedied. Cllr Ash replied that there was no spare finance at present.
3) Laura Shawyer thanked all
committee members for their voluntary hard work, and expressed the hope that
the W&WRA will go forward in a positive way.
NEXT MEETING
This will be held on Monday 2nd March
at Christ Church URC (54, Westgate Bay Avenue) at 7.00pm for 7.15pm.
The meeting concluded at 8.48pm.
