Grassington Road Litter 30th May 2009

This morning I was delivering the Resident Association Information leaflets to my designated section of the estate. It doesn't take to long even though the road is the longest at about 1/2 mile. On the way back up the street I decided to do my usual litter pick and by the time I'd finished was astounded the amount I'd collected.

As you may see from the picture the litter that abuses our streets are mainly drinks can (soft and alcohol), cigarette packets and ice pop packets. It grieves me as the drinks can and cigarette packets are recyclable and the estate has a bi-weekly recycling collection by the council.

No matter what the council could do, unless they had unlimited resources, they could never keep on top of a litter problem in any city. We need resident involvement and pride in where you live
to become the norm again and help us fight this menace.

Ainsley Area Residents Association Meeting 19th May 2009

Ainsley Area Residents Association Minutes

Held Tuesday 19^th May 2009

5.30pm Robert Shaw Primary School

Present:

Anthony Kelly (Chairman)

Michael Thomas (Secretary), Christine Thomas (Treasurer), Lyn Shepherd, Eve Earley, Jo Bride, Lyn Thompson

In Attendance:

Councillor Gary Long

Karen Coker (Head Teacher, Robert Shaw School)

Susan Ward-Rice (NAO, Nottingham City Council)

1. Apologies

Roger Codling

Chris Earley

2. Matters Arising from the Previous Minutes

These were agreed as a true record.

Southfield Road Garages

Councillor Long arranged for the remaining stump from these garages to be removed, which it now has been.

Arbrook Drive,/ Holbeck Road

Councillor Long took the information about the identified potholes on Holbeck Road to the Highways people. These holes have now been filled in.

Grassington Road Pavement

Work on the pavements has started and at the time of this meeting were nearing completion.

3. Possible Closure of Beechdale Road Library

The Council has been approached by a party interested in buying the building Beechdale Library is located in as well as the vacant building next door. No decision has been made by the Council as this was not a planned action. The money saved from this sale and closure has been identified as possibly being able to make improvements to other library services. At Councillors Long and Fosters’ recent surgery there was significant feeling presented against this course of action.

A resident from the Aspley area plans to start a petition to enable people to show their disagreement with this course of action so it may be presented to the relevant Council committee when any decision is made.

Karen is acting for the school as she feels this is a valuable local resource and is used by the school on many occasions.

Councillors Long and Foster are going to be leafleting the area to canvas local opinion. Residents will have a chance to meet and discuss this proposal with the Councillors at a meeting.

29^th May 2009 at 6pm at Beechdale Library

The committee agreed to assist the resident from Aspley in trying to obtain signatures from any residents in the Ainsley Area that may disagree with the proposal.

Action: All committee members

4. Vale Crescent North Road Surface

Compared to the road surfaces on the rest of the estate, Vale Crescent North’s road surface seems to have suffered worse than others. Councillor Long informed the meeting that a technical inspection of road usually takes place about every 2 years. Councillor Long is going to contact the relevant department to see if the road inspections are due and if not ask if they could look at the worst portions of the road.

Action : Councillor Long

5. Robert Shaw Field Update

Through a lot of hard work everything other than the insurance has been put into place ready for the reopening of the field. The Parks department have agreed to insure the field as long as certain conditions are met. Councillor Long, Karen and Susan met prior to the meeting and see no issues with most of the demands as the agreements are already in place for these. There is only one issue on the list that seems over demanding and that is the daily check for glass. Councillor Long, as well as we, felt this was unattainable in any situation. Councillor Long was going to press Parks department for a more reasonable checking regime.

Another issue Councillor Long thought the Parks might require is for some form of checking during the holiday periods. It was agreed that the committee could do this checking on a rota basis with a contact number to ring should an extreme situation occur e.g. abandoned cars.

Hopefully the insurance issue can be resolved soon as the lead-time on the entrance protection gates may delay opening the field before the start of the summer holidays.

The Committee members can draw up a rota for the summer holiday when a rough opening date is known.

Action : Councillor Long

6. Annual General Meeting.

Leaflets were distributed at the meeting for delivery to advertise the Association and the forthcoming Annual General Meeting. It was agreed to post these leaflets roughly a week before with posters put up earlier to meet the 2 week notice requirement. Karen has kindly agreed to put posters on the school boards. One will also be placed in the library.

Councillor Long has agreed to preside over the election process of officers at the meeting.

Committee members volunteering for election;

Chairman - Anthony Kelly

Secretary - Michael Thomas

Treasurer - Christine Thomas

Action : Michael Thomas

7. Correspondence

Road Sweep on the Estate

Correspondence between the Secretary and Streetscene had taken place to try and coordinate efforts between the Residents Association and the street cleaning service to facilitate car removal to enable cleaning of the worst effected areas. The initial trial had not started well with the stated clean date of the 8^th May not happening. A road sweep is meant to be every 2 weeks after this date. Unfortunately the clean then took place on the 15^th May for which we were not prepared. Councillor Long had not been responded to on his request for the cleaning schedule. The Secretary was still awaiting clarification on the no show and will make further contact regarding the event happening a week later.

Action: Michael Thomas

Nottingham City Homes

Emails have been exchanged between the Secretary and Nottingham City Homes to arrange joint involvement in coordinated inspections. The program of inspections and an identified meeting place have yet to be forthcoming. As there are only a small amount of NCH homes on the estate a general report had been requested on any issues that have arisen and are currently being addressed. This has also, as of yet, not been forthcoming.

8. Any Other Business

Big Spring Clean

Karen thanked the Residents Association for its involvement in organising the spring clean around the school grounds. Everyone involved at the school and RA on the day made a big difference to the environment around the grounds. She also thanked a couple of the committee for returning on the following Saturday for some follow up work clearing foliage.

9. Date of Next Meeting.

Annual General Meeting, 10^th June 2009 at 6pm Robert Shaw School

Meeting closed 18.10

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

Annual General Meeting

The Association has been running another year and is due for it's Annual General Meeting.



This has been booked for



20th June 2009 at 6pm



Robert Shaw Primary School, Ainsley Estate

Facebook Group

A Facebook Group has been created by a resident of Ainsley Estate. This page seems to be open to anyone with an interest in Ainsley Estate, past or present.

The link is this-

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=17756821180

There is also a group for pupils old and new for Robert Shaw Primary School.

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=17756821180#/group.php?gid=6803516244

Big Spring Clean, Robert Shaw Primary School

Big Spring Clean, Nottingham 2009

An event being planned this year is at Robert Shaw Primary School on the 21st April 2009

http://www.robertshawschool.co.uk/index.asp

A group of the school children, members of the Residents Association and a member of the local police team plan on doing a spring clean around the perimeter of the school clearing litter and removing fallen branches and twigs.

The school is a major part of the Ainsley Estate as the estate is small, only consisting of about 460 properties. This effort on everyones part should give the school grounds the benefit of a clean and tidy appearance, something for the pupils to be proud of.