Minutes of the meeting of the West Byfleet Business Association
Held on 14 June 2018 at Sweet Passion Cakes
Attendees:
Andy Jarman, Anchor
Gary Elson, Learning to Succeed
Jo Schwarzkopf-Erni, Sweet Passion Cakes
Michael Lee-Brown, Braywood
Noel Watson, Chevening Financial
Sue Taylor, FDTS
Apologies:
Alison Turner, Christine & John Morrison, Christine Osbourne, Jane Armitage, Jeremy Andrews, Matt Hoy, Natalie & Teresa, Neil Butcher, Sheena Inwood, Simon Preece, Stuart Murphy
Minutes of Meeting and Matters Arising:
The last minutes of the AGM 10 May 18 were agreed. Matters Arising discussed:
From the last meeting
Poster Plan: Property owners need to know when posters will be erected. It is proposed to place one banner above the Station, above West Byfleet Social Club, on railings north side of station entrance. ‘Apples and Pears’ have found a banner printer supplier in the Hazelmere Area that can offer banners like those that have been used to advertise West Byfleet Live in previous years and that a good price has been offered. The posters are to comprise of phrases such as: ‘Shop Local First’, ‘West Byfleet Still Open for Business’. Decision to be made to proceed subject to checking authorisation to fix to buildings/railings and whether WBBA needs any public liability cover for this.
Woking Borough Council: JA has attended meetings with the West Byfleet Neighbourhood Forum (WBNF) including meeting Cllr Graham Chrystie. WBNF will be talking to Altitude. Jane & Gary held a meeting with Geoff McManus of WBC in May and has submitted “WBBA proposal to Woking BC Parking Department” document to outline a range of parking options for the council to consider. Thanks to all for their valuable input & time constructing this.
Keeping West Byfleet Open Campaign: Curchods are paying for a time line to be on the windows of the former Thomas Cook and WBBA man become involved in something similar. Waitrose is happy for a sign to be erected. Jane due to meet Catherine Richardson, President of Woking Chamber of Commerce, on 27 June to discuss how WCC can provide help with this.
West Byfleet Live– weekend of 31 July. West Byfleet Neighbourhood Forum is to have a stand and WBBA will be sharing this stall along with the Residents’ Association.
[Update from Jane:] WBBA is invited to join WBNF for a social gathering at 6:00pm on the Saturday evening. The organisers of WBLive have been offered to advertise on WBBA website as a lot of people visit our site searching for info about WBLive
Treasurer’s update
Annual membership subscriptions are £35 or £10 per quarter for those joining part way through the year.
Previous recommendation for funds to be spent on ‘Keeping Village Open’.
Membership
Two new members have joined and both were welcomed to the meeting and had valuable input. They are Andy Jarman of Anchor Care Homes and Noel Watson of Chevening Financial.
There are unpaid subscriptions for 2018 due from Anchor Care Homes, Brayne Williams & Barnard, JL Butchers, Macco Hair, Speedflex and Pyrford Village Barbers. It was agreed to circulate the June meeting Minutes to these members but if the subscriptions were still unpaid by the time of the next meeting, their memberships would lapse.
Waitrose Manager expressed interest in joining WBBA. Michael to follow up.
Parking
Jane has drafted a “WBBA proposal to Woking BC Parking department” and has passed copies to all three local councillors, who are already working on raising the issues on behalf of WBBA, as well as to Andy Grimshaw & Wade Pollard of WBNF and to Stewart Dick of the Residents’ Association. A copy of this document is available from Jane. to anyone who has not yet seen this. Gary expanded on the content of this.
Concern was also raised about abuse of the Woodlands Avenue car park time restrictions by commuters.
A copy of WBC’s season ticket charges for local employees using Woodlands Avenue Car Park was shown. This is available from https://www.woking.gov.uk/transport/parking/season/permitcharges There is a WBBA members flat rate annual charge of £240 (including VAT – which some employer’s may be able to reclaim). It’s worth checking staff car CO2 ratings (usually printed on the car’s V5 Registration Certificate) because the WBC published rates for cars with CO2 ratings of < 120 g/km are £180 pa and with ratings of < 100g/km are £120pa – for these drivers, it would be cheaper not to apply as WBBA members.
Gary explained that the Woodlands Avenue Car Park entrance was leased by Woking BC from UK Power Networks. As the lease is short term (renewed every year) WBC is unwilling to invest in substantial repair & maintenance costs on a site where they have no certainty of tenure. It would be useful to encourage WBC to explore a longer lease term.
A question was raised whether there was a possibility of temporary parking on the UK Power Networks land by the pylon between Woodlands Avenue and the railway line. A brief Google of the site would suggest that there may be space for perhaps 20 – 30 cars but much would depend on UKPN’s stance.
Jane had previously asked if anyone had experience of using ‘Survey Monkey’ to collect data to identify where staff in businesses currently park. Cllr Amanda Boote has offered to help with the wording and this survey is also on the agenda for Jane’s meeting with WCC. Jane will also approach the WBC business development team to ask if they can help.
Marketing and Promotion
Noel Watson has kindly taken on the Marketing role. He’ll be trying to meet up with members to find out how they market their own businesses and how this dovetails with any marketing plans for the WBBA.
AOB
Stuart Murphy kindly extended an invitation to all WBBA members to attend the West Byfleet lunch club which on the last Thursday of every month at the Seven Stars in Ripley. It’s very informal but a good way of keeping up with local events.
Several members lamented the poor state of the tunnel underneath the station. Given that there’s no prospect of significant investment from Network Rail to fix it permanently, this means that any surface is likely to deteriorate within a year or so. There was discussion as to whether it would better simply to overpaint in order to make it look cleaner, albeit with the loss of the artwork. Comments and suggestions from members invited.
Desire Furnishings has submitted a planning application (Reference 2018/0149) to alter their façade. Members are invited to view the application and submit their personal support or objections accordingly directly to WBC – some members have raised concerns about parking allocations and whether the façade is in keeping with the village. Plans are available at https://caps.woking.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=documents&keyVal=P41OJCRUIQC00
while artist’s impression street façade is at https://caps.woking.gov.uk/online-applications/files/FEA4FF09F119E702AF274FC056CF420F/pdf/PLAN_2018_0149-PROPOSED_STREET_SCENE_VISUALISATION-532254.pdf
Gary mentioned that he held some reports on the profile (age / gender / socioeconomic group etc) of WB residents and would share these as it was felt this would be useful to compare & contrast with Woking / Weybridge / Cobham etc.
Current Roles:
Chair: Vacant
Vice Chair: Jane Armitage
Treasurers: John Morrison
Membership Secretary: Michael Lee-Brown
Minutes Secretary: Shared Role: Sheena Inwood, Mike Mingoia and Gary Elson
Social Media: Ancy, 57 Boutique and Jo from Sweet Passion
Marketing / promotion: Noel Watson
Date of Next Meeting
Thursday 12 July 2018 at West Byfleet Social Club
5:30pm drinks. Meeting starts 6:00pm