Minutes for Meeting September 26th, 2022

Present

Tom Stanbury – Co-chair

Nigel Duckers – Minutes Secretary                                                                              

Evan Lervill

Tony Emerson

Cllr Liz Atkins

Rosena Skeete

Dino Skeete

Gerry McAteer

Apologies

Stephanie Charalambous – Co-chair

Andreas Kappes – Comms

William Palau – Treasurer

Cllr Rezina Chowdury

1	Welcome and Apologies   Tom welcomed everyone to the meeting, which was held at an earlier start time of 17:30 than usual in The Hive, meeting room.
2	Sports Day   Sports Day was generally held to be a great success with TE commenting it was the ‘best ever’. He also noted the broad and diverse range of activities including cricket, basketball, tennis, maths, walking football etc. Roughly about 200 people attended sessions.   Money Raised Donations + £16, Sales of Tony’s book = £12, Refreshments = £25.05 TOTAL £53.05
3	Tennis   DS and RS reported on tennis activity. They have started social tennis 1-2 Tues, Thurs, Fri, Sat, Sun for the very reasonable price of £75/term; this is just starting-up. Adult refugees have been attending Get Active sessions on Saturdays. Starter Tennis – in which players get a racquet, balls etc – has ‘gone down well’ at a time of high cost for many families. Dino would like to grow a team of players from the park, building on the previous success of some junior players in the Surrey League. Courts 3 + 4 are now bookable, 1+2 have been patched and ironed. Dino will arrange to put up the nets with Rob. He mentioned the need for a maintenance schedule going forward and has suggested what is needed to LC, however, at present they seem to be planning the minimum e.g. clearing leaves etc. There are no bins on the courts, but they are adjacent in the park; this has been done for the convenience of LC emptying. There are also no new benches and we continue to press for these to be provided.
4	Mural   According to Ruth Davies, there is approx £15k for a mural. There was comment about various local murals that we liked. In general it was felt that one high-quality mural was preferred to a scheme across all of the terraces. EL will discuss with Ruth how to move forward.
5	Events   The meeting discussed plans for a Halloween event (as per previous years) for children and families on Sunday 30th October. This would also celebrate the opening of the play park.   A wider celebration of the upgraded park could be held in the spring, possibly with sports day being rescheduled as part of that.
6	Police and Crime   TS mentioned various minor crime incidents involving local youth eg phone theft, intimidation etc and expressed a view that – despite email requests – the police don’t seem very present in the park. They did not come to sports day, for example. LA suggested raising the matter at the Safer Neighbourhood Panel.
7	Bank Account   The various trustees and signatories are providing the necessary ID to Metro Bank and we hope to have the bank account fully operational soon. Signatories will be: Will, Evan, Christine Mukasa + one trustee: TE volunteered.
8	Allotment Group   It has been a successful growing season at the allotments. Tom raised the balance between ‘private’ allotments, as we have, and ‘community gardening’ as is found in some of the other open spaces eg Clapham Bandstand Beds, Brockwell etc. ND asked if the communal beds near the Children’s Centre were still being actively used. TS will check.
9	Fields in Trust   Hillside is on the list to become a Field in Trust – which would secure it from development in perpetuity – however this has not yet progressed. It was suggested that we could undertake further stages of the process (Evan having previously filled in a form) and do the admin. LA will discuss with Rezina Chowdury how to push the process forward.
10	PRNG   PRNG is heading into Autumn with GMcA commenting on the effectiveness of Lambeth’s highly efficient new mowing machine. Good Gym continue to help on a 3-weekly basis. Gerry asked about clearing out the container and getting key access. There have been previous issues around the management of tools and what is stored in the container. Ruth is currently sorting through the contents. While things are being put in order she is not sharing keys.
11	Pagoda   The pagoda (shelter near the play park) needs repair. Previously when DS agreed to take on repair of the circular bench he was told that this work would be done by the DIT Team. This has, however, not happened. DS volunteered to cost out and part-fund DIY repairs to the pagoda.
10	AGM   Monday 21 Nov 19.30   The Hive is not open for evening meetings, so we agreed to return to using St Margaret’s and St Simon and St Jude’s RC church hall on a rotating basis. We are happy to pay a reasonable hire fee but not to pay through a private-hire company. TS will liaise with the new Priest at St Simon and St Jude’s to see if direct booking can be made and take a decision from there.