West Byfleet Business Association
Minutes of the Meeting held at West Byfleet Social Club on Thursday December 5th 2013 at 7.30am
Present: to be confirmed.
Pauline Hedges – Chair
Christine Osborne, Noel Richardson, John Ashcroft, John Morrison, Jessica Maybanks (joined later), Mark Fuller, Roland Nevett, Shani Orchard, Oliver Lodge, Stella McMillan, The Morrisons.
Welcome and apologies
Pauline welcomed everyone, apologies have been received from Jessica Maybanks, who may be joining us later and Catherine Richardson.
Minutes of the meeting November 2013 – these were approved
Matters arising
Collection licence for the Rotary Club has been received anyone collecting should be wearing the yellow lapel stickers. The council have been extremely supportive. The West Byfleet junior school has applied for a licence as well.
WBBA constitution meeting took place and minutes have been circulated.
Christine Osbourne will be paying in monies collected for the Christmas Trees and will give a note of the payees for Ron Enticott. The Christmas Tree outside Apples and Pears actually cost £426.00. General conversation took place regarding cheques etc.
Website: Mark presented the statistics in July there were, over a 1,000 visitors looking up the information for West Byfleet Live with 151 visits last month. Average time on the website is 1 min 32 seconds. Various sites were accessed via the wbba website directory. There were 371 pages visited last month. As a matter of interest, but not related to the Website, Mark mentioned that Wine Rack, West Byfleet, was in the Independent last month. (they will be approached re membership). PH said a big thanks to Mark for developing and maintain the website.
Christmas 2013
This evening is the evening of the Christmas Evening Event, please support. Various traders will be participating. There is a lovely Winter Wonderland affect in the village due to the lights. The Christmas Tree secured outside Apples and Pears. The lights go off after six hours. Many thanks to the Morrison’s for being the instigators and to all those who have supported this venture. CM said that the Landlords have said that they will be putting planters in the area and the 2012 Olympic photo will be going up in that area.
There has been fantastic support from the local businesses in respect of the raffle for tonight. Prizes from West Byfleet Golf Club; Wine Tasting from Wine Rack for up to eight people at your own home; vouchers from Waitrose, Apples and Pears, Naomi, Carmel Snow, LONDIS, Boots and more. It was mentioned that Academy windows circulated an email to all past customers and requested support for the evening’s events
The Morrisons mentioned that on Saturday (7th December) there will be Carols round the Christmas Tree at 2.00 pm – The Wey Voices. The question was raised whether Ray Morgan coming round on Saturday – There is a project called Small Businesses Saturday to scope out villages in respect of trade. However, this cannot be general knowledge as the desire is for him not to be approached with those with issues.
Planning Issues
RN has submitted a planning objection against the development on the top of the buildings in the Sheer House Development area on behalf of WBBA.
The Nail Bar application was approved and we were advised that there were insufficient objections submitted – there needs to be 10 received. The fact that it was a conservation area and now will have an unsightly extractor fan was not making sense and a general discussion took place regarding this.
Neighbourhood Forum – the meeting took place RN and MF attended. There were lot of residents in attendance. There has been small funding received for the Forum for advertising. It is created as an interface with the council whereby local issues can be put forward, or the feelings of the community can be put forward. It will be mostly relating to planning issues. However, the forum’s contribution has to be taken into account when planning for development is put together. Very important that representation from this group is on the forum, but this group still need to be independent in their relationship with the local council. Pauline added that indeed there are three from WBBA on the committee; Mark in respect of the website of the West Byfleet Residents forum, Noel is representing the big business, Pauline Hoskins from the West Byfleet Residents Association and Pauline Hedges. There are three residents forums plus businesses and neighbourhood forum to discuss how we want the area to develop.
First committee meeting last night. After discussion both West Byfleet Neighbourhood Forum and Pyrford Neighbourhood Forum agreed the boundary between the two Forums and both applications have been submitted to Woking Borough Council. Byfleet submitted six months ago and is due to be heard in council in February.
There is no cost to join and there is a need for more members. There are 21 members which increased to 70 last night. Apples and Pears have the membership forms. There is a need for more businesses as they will be the most affected as there are a lot of issues with regards planning applications. Pyrford area is protecting their Green Belt, but relying on West Byfleet to protect and guide with regards business opportunities.
Are people aware that there is another Free School application submitted to be in Broadoaks. www.freeschoolwestbyfleet.com? Do we need another school? Thanks were made to Roland for his professional input. WBNF may well approach him for assistance.
Membership
Planned to concentrate on this subject in the New Year.
Woking Chambers
Nothing to report that affects West Byfleet. However, there is a round of applause from them to us for all what we are doing. Chamber amazed at the progress.
AOB
Community Partnerships Team from Surrey County Council would like to write a story regarding how the allocated funding for the lights has been used.
There will be a project in the New Year in respect of a permanent light display in the trees from Seymours to Waitrose funding from Londis of £1,000.
Need to assess the WBBA funds. However, firstly there is a need to put together a 2-3 year plan for expenditure and explore what the events will be.
West Byfleet LIVE: 97 items to discuss Fire plan first meeting with Jimmy Beech fairground operator very keen and as soon as Christmas out of the way a committee will be formed for this event. It is likely to be the last weekend in July on the Friday/Saturday. All agreed that the bikes on the flyers used previously will need to be taken off the circulation sheets so not to confuse with a potential cycle race in August in Surrey. Retailers should take advantage of the events. Corkers are happy to partake again. There is likely to be a £1500 donation pounds from Borough Council for promotion Brochure.
Noel thanked the publishing company for printing the leaflets for the Christmas Event evening tonight. Thanks also to the Richardsons for the design. It was mentioned that it would have been good if some of the activity tonight was moved down towards the station. Due to commuters not feasible, but the butchers will be there with the sausages.
Jessica thanked the WBBA for supporting Eikon tonight. Oliver mentioned that he will be on Brooklands Radio on Saturday afternoon and is doing his top twelve records, will try and mention WBBA. 3-4.00 pm.
Date of next meeting: 9th January 2013
Huge thanks to Stella for breakfast