West Byfleet Business Association
Minutes of the Meeting held at Costa Coffee, West Byfleet
on Thursday 4th September 2014 at 7.30 am.
Present:
Pauline Hedges – Chair
John Ashcroft, Oliver Lodge, Christine Morrison, John Morrison, Juliette Price.
Yve Birks (Scope), Mark Allard ( Curchods)
Welcome and apologies
PH welcomed everyone and in particular the two new members and reported that apologies had been received from Catherine Richardson, Roland Nevett, Stella McMillan, Gary Elson, Noel Richardson, Christine Osborne, Mark Fuller, Ron Enticott, Shani Orchard
Minutes of the meeting August 2014 were approved, no amendments
Matters Arising
Finance re West Byfleet LI:VE 2014 – Pauline had asked Gary to acquire the funding from WBC and it was with him. She had paid ALL bills with the exception of the £1350 due to Fonix and had sent them an email, see below:
My apologies for the delay in responding to you; I needed to discuss the matter with my committee.
When I first spoke to you after the film show, I was under the impression that Filmbank Distributors were at fault in sending me a DVD which was copyright protected and that the Fonix staff had acted correctly in removing the copyright.
I rang you to complain about the poor service we had received on Saturday July 26th and you subsequently offered to provide a Screen at no cost for next year’s performance. I then spoke to Bal at Filmbank who assured me that as I had paid £150 for a licence to show the DVD to the general public, there was no problem with the DVD having a copyright protection on it and that it should have been shown without any delay. The Fonix technician stated that the copyright had to be removed and that he would download the necessary equipment to do this but it would take at least 40 minutes, however it took longer. The delay in actually showing the film was 1 hour and 10 minutes – we were due to start screening at 6.30pm but it was 7.40pm before it commenced. Given that the lorry and crew arrived on site at about 2.00pm – 2.30pm there was plenty of time for erecting the equipment and checking that it was working correctly.
During the performance the laptop being used was placed on the grass and a blade of grass became stuck in the DVD slot which caused at least one of the 3 unscheduled pauses in the showing of the film.
Fortunately the assembled audience were patient and I did not receive too many complaints but because the show started so much later, and with three unplanned pauses, the film showing did not end until around 9.30pm – a full 30 minutes after my licence from the council to hold both the film show and the entire event had ended. It was also becoming dark by then and the audience – around several hundred people – had to find their way to the exits without extra lights as the long delay to the start of the film had not been anticipated. I had checked the length of the film -105 minutes running time – so that had it commenced on time, without delays or interruptions, the show would have been over by 8.30pm at the very latest allowing the public to disperse safely in daylight.
For these reasons I am unable to dispatch the outstanding sum of money and I will not be taking up your offer of free screening next year.
Christmas lights – Oliver and Christine M have raised £735 so far with more to come. Together with Gary they will be taking a walk round to encourage others to join in and to assess where the lights can be put. Oliver asked for the balance (£334.84) held by WBBA specifically for Christmas to be passed over to the general fund and Pauline offered it contact Ron. Oliver will talk to Paul at Bourne Valley about this and also the Christmas trees.
Rod Stewart Tribute 20th September – Social Club Christine M was selling tickets for this event and asked everyone to support it
MacMillan Coffee Morning – 26th September – Social Club everyone was asked to support this
WEST BYFLEET LI:VE
The venue has been booked for 2015 and a meeting will be arranged with WBC to consider the success of this year and any improvements needed for next year.
Web Site
No report as Mark was away.
Planning Issues
Roland had circulated a note concerning a possible problem with a developed turning Sheer House from offices into housing. He had, on behalf of the WBBA, sent an objection to Woking Borough Council but there had been no response to date.
Pauline informed the meeting of the proposed Ward Boundary Changes, which are copied below and urged everyone who was eligible to vote in the area to comment to the address given.
Ward Boundary Changes
The Boundary Commission has now issued its draft proposals for changes to Electoral Ward Boundaries in the Woking Borough.
It is proposed that the present West Byfleet Ward will in future be divided between 3 new wards:
“Byfleet and West Byfleet Ward”, “Pyrford Ward” and “Sheerwater Ward”.
In general terms, Dartnell Park and the centre of West Byfleet would be aligned with Byfleet, most of the remaining areas would be aligned with Pyrford and the three roads of Hollies Avenue, Woodlands Avenue and Old Avenue would join with Sheerwater.
For more information, and maps to find out exactly which ward you would belong to, please visit the Boundary Commission’s website: www.lgbce.org.uk
The changes are being made to reduce the number of Woking wards from 36 to 30, and to ensure an equal number of electors within each of the new wards. Other criteria which must be taken into account are “community identity” and “strong, easily identifiable boundaries” for the new wards.
The Boundary Commission is inviting comments on its draft proposals by October 6th 2014
You can send your comments:-
By email to: reviews@lgbce.org.uk
Or in writing to:
Review Officer (Woking), LGBCE, Layden House, 76-78 Turnmill Street, London EC1
Further information and a large map of the proposed boundaries can be viewed at West Byfleet Library.
Membership
This is doing well thanks to great efforts by the membership sub group. 3 new members paid on the day with another to follow later and 3 more in the pipeline. The sub group was applauded!
Woking Chamber
No meeting in August.
Treasurers Report
No report as Ron was absent.
AOB
Mark showed an Introductory Book of Vouchers which Curchods produce for every person enquiring about property in Farnham and Mark offered to produce something similar for West Byfleet. It could be combined with an up to date window decal. The membership sub group would look at it but the meeting was very enthusiastic about this further opportunity to encourage more businesses to join.
ACTION – Chris M, Oliver talk to Mark Allard and Mark Fuller.
Nicky at Blush has offered to collate a pyramid / cascade system for all the shops in the village to a pass on any information such as possible shop lifting, counterfeit notes etc.
Apples and Pears are celebrating 50 years of trading on September 27th with various activities and help is required to man some of the stalls. Contact the shop for more details.
John took photographs of those he had not already got.to add to the new digital magazine – West Byfleet Means Business. All businesses represented here.
Pauline thanked Christine M for arranging the meeting in Costas.
The next meeting will be held on Thursday 2nd October, venue to be confirmed.