BRACKENBURY RESIDENTS ASSOCIATION Minutes of the 2011 Annual General Meeting 11 July 2011 at the Grove Neighbourhood Centre Attendees – Committee: Stuart Blake (Chairman), Alice McMillan (Treasurer), Julia Davidson, Claire Harris, Rosemary Pettit, Toni Raybould, Joanna Thomas, Richard Winterton. Members/Associate Members/Members’ Guests: Stephen Bennett, Vicky Bennett, Anna Benson Gyles, Stephen Biddulph, David Broad, Jinty Broad, Angela Cholmondeley–Clarke, Henry Clark, Neville Collins, Isobel Coy, Ian Cranna, Ann Crighton, Charlie Cubbon, Lizzie Cubbon, C. Davis, Jill De Villiers, Sarah Fletcher, Paul Fox, Jim Friedlander, Ruth Fuller- Sessions, Rita Gilbert, Mary Gormley, Matthew Goslett, Albertina Graham, Annick Hardwick, Andy Hartland, Jane Hartland, Greg Harris, Susan Herbert, Fiona Holmes, Patricia Houlihan, Shirley Lucking, Henrietta Malet, Peter Martin, Diana Mather, Liz Mason, Juliet Melford, Peter Munns, Professor Mugiko Nishikawa, Annette O’Sullivan, Richard Owen, Rona Passmore, Catherine Pritchard, Susan Richards, Pamela Rosier, Peter Rosier, The Hon Alexandra Shackleton, Judi Shaw, Jemima Sohachevsky, Noah Sohachevsky, Alex Stephenson, Janet Strangeways, Martin Thirlaway, Murray Thomas, Caroline Trier, Jillie Virgin, Roger Warry, Lisbeth Winterton, Anne Wright, Michael Wright, Sonia Wright-Morris. Guests: Cllr Stephen Cowan (Hammersmith Broadway Ward), Cllr Charlie Dewhirst (Ravenscourt Park Ward), Cllr Lucy Ivimy (Ravenscourt Park Ward), Cllr Harry Phibbs (Cabinet Member for Community Engagement, Ravenscourt Park Ward), Fiona Anderson (Ashchurch Residents Association), Sergeant Chris Jackson (Hammersmith Broadway Safer Neighbourhood Team), John Jones (Chairman, Ravenscourt Association), The Revd David Matthews (Holy Innocents Church), David Millar (Chairman of Hammersmith and Fulham Neighbourhood Watch Association), Gilia Slocock (Brook Green Association), Thomas Packer (Headmaster, West London Free School), Vicky Wood (Chairman, Grove Neighbourhood Centre), Toby Young (Journalist and Co-Founder of West London Free School). Apologies: Andy Slaughter, MP, Cllr Michael Cartwright and Cllr P.J. Murphy (Hammersmith Broadway Ward), James Ball, Annabel Clarke (Cathnor Park Area Action Group), Angela Dixon (Hammersmith and Fulham Historic Buildings Group), Sergeant Douglas Gold (Ravenscourt Park Safer Neighbourhood Team), Bunny Hoover, Margaret Hyde, Lesley Spires (BRA Committee Member) Sergeant Dennis Symeou (Hammersmith Broadway Safer Neighbourhood Team), Linda Tanner, Melanie Whitlock (Hammersmith Society), Elizabeth Wright. 1. Welcome Stuart Blake welcomed everyone to the meeting and thanked them for coming. He read out the list of special guests who had accepted the invitation. 2. Minutes of 2010 AGM The Minutes were approved. 3. Chairman’s Report Stuart Blake said the Brackenbury Residents Association was now in its 12th year and going from strength to strength. It membership was climbing, its finances healthy and it continued to play an important part in the community. He thanked all Committee members for their support and all those involved with BRA for their continued willingness to make a much needed and much appreciated contribution. During the past year, BRA’s tree project had continued to be a great success and there was much less graffiti, thanks mainly to its quick removal by Toni Raybould and her dedicated team. He asked members to let her know if they saw any graffiti. BRA continued its involvement with Neighbourhood Watch (NW) and was represented on the Safer Neighbourhood Ward Panels, as well as liaising regularly with other residents’ associations and local amenity groups. As always, we had had a challenging year on the planning front and special thanks were due to Richard Winterton and Rosemary Pettit for doing a thoroughly professional job of representing Brackenbury residents’ opinions about new developments in and around our area. There had been a lot of speculation about the future of our local shops around Brackenbury Road. The shops had been renegotiating their leases with the new freeholder, Mrs Freiburg, and we had written to her emphasising the great value of the shops to the community and how concerned we would be if they were lost. To date, we had received no reply. However Buchanans, at the heart of Brackenbury, had changed hands following the sad death of the much loved James Buchanan. From 18 July, Buchanans would be known as Brackenbury’s Delicatessen and we wished its new owners, Tim Roche and Sharon Isaac-Upton, every success. They were planning to have an opening party soon and he asked members to give them every support. There had been two very successful events in Brackenbury in the last twelve months. In December we had held our third Christmas Carol event, led once again by the marvellous singing of Brackenbury and Godolphin and Latymer School choirs. We intended to run it again this year on a date yet to be fixed and would welcome anyone interested in helping with it. On 29 April we had showed that Brackenbury knows how to throw a party. Aldensley, Marco and Perrers Roads all gave wonderful royal street parties. We would like to give special thanks to the Andover, all the party organisers and neighbours for their hard work, plus our local police and special constables for their attendance and for being such good sports. It was a truly memorable day. Finally, congratulations were due to Claire Harris, NW Co-ordinator for Iffley Road, who had won the Douglas Hurd Cup, awarded annually to an outstanding NW volunteer. In the last year, Claire had doubled membership of her local group and supported police - the full citation on her contribution was on the H&F website. Her winning the cup kept it in Brackenbury for another year since Toni Raybould of Agate Road NW won it last year. Achievements like this would continue to make Brackenbury such a strong community and living here so special. 4. Tree Report Presenting the Tree Report for the fourth time, Claire Harris reported that the project was going from strength to strength. She reminded members that this time last year she had reported that BRA was responsible for 91 new trees arriving in our streets since 2008. She was delighted to say that we had now hit the century mark. Last year, we had been unable to spend all the monies we were awarded for new plane trees in Goldhawk Road, as there weren’t enough suitable trees available when the grant was originally won. However, at the beginning of this year, the Council had planted a further ten trees in Goldhawk Road, taking our total to a glorious 101. The Council had planted a further 21 new street trees at the start of the year (in addition to replacements, which they provided as a matter of course). This new planting was primarily funded by a further grant from the Mayor of London’s Fund; and amongst other things, led to six new trees (rowans) being planted in Overstone Road – a street which was difficult to plant because of under street cables and basements – and they hoped to plant more there. The Council was planning to apply for another grant from this year’s Mayors Fund, and we had been invited to suggest planting sites. Members should feel free to add to our list of suggestions. At this stage, the Council did not know what monies would be available; and they would not even start to look at possible sites until much later in the year. Issues like cables, basements, pavement widths, and street furniture would dictate what was and was not possible. Nothing would happen soon but she would keep members informed. A number of members had expressed an interest in sponsoring street trees – as we had done in the past. The Council was more than happy for residents to do this; the current cost was £250 (although we did not know if that would hold for 2012). If members would let her know if they would like to sponsor, and the sites they would like to see planted, she would share this with the Council. She thanked everyone who had helped our newest trees by giving them some much needed water in the very hot spell in April (and beyond). The Council maintained that their tree contractors were watering new trees to the required and agreed level but, when it got very dry, the trees needed and welcomed our tlc. Two full buckets of water were needed – one down the tube and one on top of the earth round the tree. On a sad note, we were still seeing tree vandalism - the latest victim was one of our new Goldhawk Road trees, which had been chopped in half (and promptly reported to Council and police). Toni Raybould had sent a picture to the Council and had asked for CCTV footage. We had also asked for more guard rails round trees. On a happier note, we had heard that the trees in the grounds of Godolphin & Latymer School, which had been the subject of a planning order to remove and replace, had been given preservation orders and therefore saved. Finally, just to keep members informed, the Council was about to embark on the annual round of removing the basal growth from our lime trees in Agate, Beauclerc, Coulter, Hebron, Iffley and Marco Roads. Claire concluded by thanking members for continuing to support the greening of Brackenbury. Explaining that he was asking virtually the same question as he had last year, Peter Munns said that he kept an eye on three trees in Nasmyth Street. Of the tubes for the three trees, one worked, one worked partially and the third did not work at all - he suspected that they were blocked due to neglect. Claire said that the matter was raised with the Council last year as promised. She explained that the tubes really only served or the first two years after planting and were not so important in the second year. 5. Planning Report 6. Membership Report Rosemary Petit reported that membership had increased again that year.