Minutes of the Meeting held at GfK, Sheer House on Thursday July 4th 2013 at 7.30am
1. Welcome and apologies
Pauline welcomed everyone. Apologies had been received from several members.
2. Minutes of Meeting June 6th 2013
3. Matters Arising
All Action Points formed Agenda items apart from the following:
3.1. Gary and Pauline had both spoken to Geoff McManus who had replied that Surrey County council would look at ALL parking issues both in the village centre and the CPZ issues in late 2014.
3.2 John A had not gone ahead with printing the brochure due to lack of time and support. He was thanked and it was agreed that we would consider this offer much earlier next year.
6.1 Pauline would speak to the West Byfleet School Choir again.
10.2 Riette Thomas had informed Pauline that the council were considering alternative sites for the Legacy Board and Pauline was asked to chase her to ensure this happened before the end of July.
ACTION POINT
Pauline to contact WBC
4. West Byfleet Festival – 2013
Pauline had nearly 30 interested stallholders booked plus the fun fair, inflatables and food stalls. The meeting suggested hiring Dirty Dancing as the family Film. The Community Charity collection in Waitrose had raised a large sum of money and both the Resident’s Association and the County councillor had offered money to assist with associated expenses. She would ask WBC to assist with volunteers for the day and several members offered their help as well. Shani had printed leaflets and various members offered to distribute these. Pauline would ask Pyrford Flower Show to hand them out and John offered to ask all the Street Reps to deliver them where possible.
It was agreed that a bucket collection asking for donations would be made during the film show and Pauline and Ron would provide the buckets and Christine Morrison would be in charge of this.
ACTION POINT
Pauline and Ron to provide 6 buckets.
Pauline reminded the meeting of the road closures on Sunday August 4th and Gary offered to email the route to everyone.
ACTION POINT
Gary to email Ride London route to everyone.
5 Website
Mark reported that the site receives about 300 visitors every month and he repeated the generous offer of advertising on the website with a link to the businesses own website for £5 per month plus VAT. The LI:VE site has been set up.
On his suggestion for a new member’s Ad at a cost of £5 per month – which would be income for Roibot to offset their costs of maintaining the web site? The meeting approved this suggestion. The website is generating enquiries for membership and interest in taking part in West Byfleet LI:VE.
6. W B Christmas 2013
Christine and Noel had started to make arrangements and Nicky had drafted a letter to be circulated to all traders ATTACHED TO AND FORMING PART OF THESE MINUTES. They were having difficulty finding a Choir and Pauline and Ron offered to ask a local Rotary Club for the evening of December 5th
ACTION POINT
Pauline and Ron to source a Rotary Sleigh
It was suggested we ask Fullbrook School to contribute to the festivities with their new ukuleles recently purchased with money donated by the Resident’s Association.
Waitrose would hold their late night evening on the same night.
7. Planning Issues
Roland had sent a detailed email to everyone on the emailing list regarding the latest proposals by the owners of Sheer House. At present 200 people work in the building and contribute to the economy of the village but these will all have left by the end of 2014.
Briefly we had a choice of 3 actions as a group of concerned businesses:
1. Support the proposal to turn Sheer House into residential accommodation
2. Object to the plans
3. Do nothing.
A ballot was taken by a show of hands and the following was the result:
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One person supported supporting the current plan
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17 people objected to the current plan
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No one was in favour of doing nothing.
The meeting asked Roland, Mike and Richard to draft a letter setting out the meeting’s feelings to be put before Woking Borough Council before Tuesday July 9th.
Everyone was asked to make their own comments to the Council as well.
ACTION POINT
Roland, Mike, Richard to present a letter to the Borough Council
ALL to send their own comments to the council BEFORE July 9th.
It was agreed that this would be a good opportunity to put pressure on the council to focus more on the needs of West Byfleet and to engage with some large local businesses
8. Membership
Due to the lengthy discussions about the Festival, Christmas and planning there was insufficient time and this item is deferred to the next meeting as the main item on the agenda.
The meeting agreed that Pauline, Ron, John and Richard S should meet up to sort out the current membership and discuss recruitment.
ACTION POINT
Ron, Pauline, John and Richard to meet.
9. Woking Chamber
Nothing to report.
10. Any Other Business
There was no other business.
11. Date of Next Meeting
Thursday August 4th, West Byfleet Social Club, kindly offered by Stella McMillan.
The meeting closed at 9.05am with thanks to Waitrose for refreshments and GfK for hosting the meeting.
Shani took some members on a tour of the building.