Robert Shaw Primary School Big Spring Clean

The Spring Clean took place as planned on a lovely sunny afternoon with a class of year 4 pupils, parents, Residents Association members and Local Councillors. Whilst the children and parents concentrated on clearing the school of the litter that had built up under the folliage the RA members cleared and pruned some of the overgrown plants. About 20 bags of litter and garden rubbish was collected. A great effort was made by all the spruce you the place with the results looking wonderful. Whilst this was taking place the Local Councillors made a start on Southfield Road collecting almost a full bag by scrabbling under hedges to clear as much as possible. The event took about 2 hours with support for the rubbish clearance in relation to equipment, bags and waste removal bring provided by Susan Ward-Rice of the Area Committee and Streetscene. One of the Residents Association also managed to give the access subway a good sweep making the place look generally better.

After the main clean up event of Tuesday we thought we wish we had a bit more time to freshen up the front of the School. One of the Association was gagging to carry on with the clean up on the day itself but unfortunately we had run out of time. I thought as I had some spare time we could go back and complete a little work. Between 2 of us we managed to do a half decent job that will hopefully surprise the school when they return on Monday.

A big thank you to all those who helped.

Ainsley Area Residents Association Meeting 18th March 2009

Present:

Anthony Kelly (Chairman)

Michael Thomas (Secretary), Christine Thomas (Treasurer), Chris Earley, Eve Earley, Jo Bride, Pete Uvegas, Roger Codling

In Attendance:

Councillor Gary Long

Karen Coker (Head Teacher, Robert Shaw School)

1. Apologies

Councillor Alex Foster

Susan Ward-Rice (NAO, Nottingham City Council)

Lynn Thompson

Matters Arising from the Previous Minutes

These were agreed as a true record. Error in the spelling at Mr & Mrs Earley’s name corrected.

Southfield Road Garages

The grown section has been cleared by a local resident. Someone from either Nottingham City Homes or the Council did attend with a mini digger to remove the remaining stumps as requested but could only access one of them as a car had parked in the way. Councillor Long was going to contact the relevant section to see if they are going to make a return visit to remove the remaining stumps.

Action : Councillor Long

Arbrook Drive,/ Holbeck Road

The potholes on Holbeck Road seem to have already been repaired with a temporary measure. Councillor Long was asking if the Highways department to see if they could do the same to the ones on Arbrook Drive to at least the worst ones on the road especially near Number 1. This is as much as we can ask Councillor Long to do because of the way the roads are managed. We are grateful for him bringing this section to their attention.

Action : Councillor Long

Grassington Road Pavement

Councillor Long brought to the meeting that had been informed that Grassington Roads pavement works should hopefully start in the next couple of weeks.

Robert Shaw Playing Fields Update

The group review the information attached to the minutes regarding clearance and maintenance and the differing costs. Because the quotes are for the School and not the Council the School can use one company for one and one for the other. It was agreed the quoted number of cuts each year was probably too high and we need to keep the costs down if the school are going to pay for the annual maintenance. This information was thought to be based on the level of cuts for the school itself. This information would be passed to Susan Ward-Rice so she may get an adjusted figure when speaking to the companies involved. It was also agreed that initially a basic field with not extras would be provided but at some future point grant applications by the Residents Association be made for further development. Councillor Long is in the process of meeting with an official of the Parks Department to clarify their position of the insurance cover for the field.

Hopefully these processes can be put in to position soon as the lighter nights have seen a return to the trespassers on the school grounds for ball games and Karen receiving vial abuse from some of the individuals when they are asked to leave.

Action : Councillor Long, Susan Ward-Rice

Nottingham In Bloom Painting Competition

The Secretary was handed information from Susan regarding a painting competition being run in connection with “Nottingham In Bloom”. This competition is available for children up to 16 years old. A couple of copies were provided to the school by the Secretary and Karen kindly allowed the group to pin a larger copy of their public notice board so hopefully more residents will see the information. It was suggested putting a poster in the library and the local newsagents also if they didn’t already have one.

Action : Michael Thomas

Big Spring Clean

As part of Nottingham’s “Big Spring Clean” an event has been suggested that would give the school grounds a general spruce. The event involves a litter pick and light tidying up of the border of the school on Southfield Road and Dorothy Grove. Karen has organised a class to be involved in the litter pick and a couple of the committee have already committed to helping out. Susan Ward-Rice is organising the equipment and one of the Community Support Officers is also coming to help. Anyone else who can attend would be greatly appreciated including any local residents they would be willing to give up some time. Karen is asking the Evening Post to attend to show an event of School/Resident cooperation.

Information has already been put on the Ainsley Estate Group on Facebook but if you know anyone that is willing to help let them know the date.

EVENT DATE Tuesday 21^st April 2009 at 1pm

Meet: Robert Shaw School Main Entrance

Action : all committee members.

6. Annual General Meeting.

The next Annual General Meeting is due. The date for this has been set 10^th June at 6pm. Thank you to all of the volunteers for offering to delivering leaflets to advertise the meeting and the Residents Association. The information leaflets will be printed and handed out at the next meeting.

7. Any Other Business

Road Sweep on the Estate

The estate gives the impression that a general road sweep has taken place for a while. A member of the committee has cleared 3 bags of litter of the road and pavement recently took a review of some of the roads. A particular problem raised by Councillor Long is when cars are parked in the worst areas the workman can not gain access to the edge. A certain section of Southfield seems to have suffered from this problem for a while. A request was made that if Councillor Long spoke to Streetscene if he could let Michael know the date and a message could be pushed through the doors of the properties with cars in this section asking them if they could relocate on that day.

Action: Michael Thomas, Jo Bride, Councillor Long

Western Boulevard/ Robert Shaw School

Karen in negotiation with the Highways Agency had organised to back to be cleared. So far they have cleared most of the trees and shrubs but at the moment have failed to finish the job of removing the litter and some of the shrubbery near the subway on the school side. Karen has already asked Susan to become involved to enquire about the Agency completing the work and asked Councillor Long if he could investigate also in coordination with Susan.

8. Date of Meeting

Tuesday 19^th May 2009 at 5.30 pm at Robert Shaw School