• 1 Apologies
Sam Gildert, Stephen Cudworth, Shelley Carter, Ken Slaughter, Brian and Janet Meleleu
• 2 Matters Arising from last meeting
Dark Lane - still in a state. SC has spoken to Alyson Barnes who said the site wasn’t looking tempting for development at the minute. A few developers have looked at it and aren’t interested. She is aware that it is a state and getting worse. Alyson has said the owner has said they will come to site to tidy up the site a bit. Paddy is also chasing this by speaking to the owner. The bad weather delayed the works earlier this year.
St Nicholas’ Church – January meeting delayed due to snow but has been rearranged for a few weeks’ time. Will look at draft expression of interest to submit to Heritage Lottery fund in the coming weeks.
Membership – SC has chased this and will update the contact sheet.
Dementia Friendly – Shirley provided posters and info to share wide and far.
Civic Pride – had planned a clean up last week but it snowed heavily! They changed their area and focussed on Tricketts. But apparently, it’s looking bad again since then. Simone said the Guides could look at this for a session (but would need to take care due to ‘nature’ of waste. And carry out works in daylight).
Newchurch Singing group – Thursday morning at the Methodist Church from 10am (starting with a brew). Cost £4 per session. Trial for now to see how it works – still gathering momentum.
• 3 New Kirk Fair Update – 8th September
SC has been busy arranging stalls!
• Brownies, Guides and Rainbows will have a stand
• SC has also asked The Scouts too for a stall to raise their own funds to go to America
• St Nicholas Church will have a stall
• A local resident who makes her own artwork who could take orders
• Body Shop table
A few more to ask too
SC found old newspapers from the 1930s about scout pageants; one of which was for Kirk Fair. Their event included wrestling, boxing, pillories, stocks, acrobats etc. Would be nice to revive some of these – Simone can find stocks! And we could ask the cheerleaders from the dance studio on Bridleway.
Worm charming competition outside the church! Families get involved in a marked square in the grounds; see what you can find within 15 mins. A competition to win a cup! Danny is our ‘willing’ volunteer – thanks Danny! Bring your own watering cans; £2 to enter or so.
Shirley suggested the upstairs room could be used for kid’s activities including a bouncy castle. Or invite an organisation such as Arty Party to put on activities for kids. Shirley to price this up and look into options.
Other ideas:
• Guess the time of the clock (similar to guess the weight or guess the name) and win a prize
• Whack a rat with Geoff! (thanks as always Geoff)
• Face painting (same person who came few years ago) rather than asking someone from the association to man the stand all day
• Other suggestions and ideas welcome. Wilf suggested a photo board of Rossendale photos he has ‘Guess the view in Rossendale’ and win £5 if you get it right. 50p to enter
PRIZES! More donations needed for raffle and tombola. Either bring to a meeting or take to Simone directly as she has storage at church.
• 4 Community Garden Update
Janet is our secret gardener! It looks fabulous, our thanks to her for the hard work.
Geoff is the secret dog poo picker upper!
And Danny has been planting bedding too.
Huge thanks to everyone who has kept the garden looking nice.
There have been more children and families using it which is great and shows that our efforts are worthwhile.
Ask David McChesney to target leaflet the houses where we suspect the dog fouling is coming from.
Paddy suggested we could stencil the area again too with the dog poo signs.
The Lions are having a meeting next Thursday and they might be able to sponsor a seat for the garden too. Simone can’t make it but will write a letter on behalf of the association to express our interest.
£80 still left to spend from the original grant. Check in spring what is growing and what isn’t so we know what to replace. Julia has great ideas. £12 spent on primroses earlier this month which Danny planted.
Donated seat – Janet has volunteered Brian to repair this and install it.
Stone and signage – Got a price from LCC highways for an official LCC approved sign. £300 including installation. Would include the words ‘please drive safely’
Stone boulder with wording “Newchurch-in-Rossendale”. RG to chase this again with Ken Howe for a price. LCC Highways are checking if planning consent is required. The planning would cost £234 in itself. Once we have prices, RG can apply for grant funding towards the cost of these.
• 5 Staghills Play Area
SC has approached RBC (Keith Jenkins) again and has had no response. Paddy will chase this with Keith directly.
RG and SC to meet up to agree a plan of action with regards to next steps.
• 6 Planning
See above under Dark Lane
• 7 AOB
Paddy introduced Christine Gill as the new Labour candidate for Hareholme ward as Cllr Crawforth is retiring.
Irwell Tapestry
SC to chase artist Ruth Evans AGAIN with regards to holding workshops in Newchurch. WI meet at the Methodist Church already and we can promote it as a group via noticeboard and social media. SC to contact Mhorag Saxon at RBC about this instead.
Funding
RG to dig out windfarm fund details and forward to Shirley re funding for local events/churches
Secretary
Rachael has resigned as secretary as she and Sam are moving to Loveclough on 20th April. So NVCA are looking for a new secretary! Might be a rotating volunteer depending on who is free at each meeting.
Time of next meeting – Margaret asked if we could change the time of the meeting as she has food on a Thursday. Say 8.30? Or change the day of the week?
• 8 Next Meetings
Thursday 10th May 2018 at NEW TIME OF 8.30pm to accommodate food events at the pub which happen on a Thursday.